We learn these forms from their use in spoken English, but need
also to be able to write them in full.
Possession
This use causes the greatest confusion, but the rules that apply are,
in spite of popular belief, quite straightforward.
Possession expresses the idea that something belongs to
someone or some other thing, and omission represented by the
apostrophe is actually the contraction of the word ‘has’.
For example:
John has money.
becomes
John’s money.
and
The dog has a dish.
becomes
The dog’s (a) dish …
This is a very economical language device. If the noun is in
the plural form, already ending in ‘s’, then the use of a second ‘s’
would be clumsy. So the apostrophe sits on its own and the second
‘s’ is simply omitted.
For example:
The dogs’ dishes …
The boys’ careers …
This awkwardness does not apply with plural forms that don’t
end with ‘s’.
For example:
Children’s teeth …
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t h e A p o s t r o p h e
A
In spoken language, to avoid ambiguity, we can fall back on the

A
a. the headmaster’s office
b. a bee’s sting
c. two cars’ headlights
d. the class’s results
e. those dogs’ bones
f. the science teacher’s study
g. our museum’s corridors
h. the king’s horses
i. the horses’ harnesses
j. my mother’s hat
3. Students write on the board, or in their books, abbreviations and
other usages of the apostrophe.
MBA’s, PhD’s, BBQ’s, do’s and don’t’s, dot your i’s (this would say ‘is’
without the apostrophe)
Checklist: apostrophes
Students should now be able to use the apostrophe for:
• showing possession of something belonging to:
− one person or thing, e.g. grandma’s glasses
− more than one person or thing, e.g. the cars’ roofs (n.b. not
‘rooves’)
− one or more person or thing that already ends in ‘s’, e.g. Mr
Jones’ pen
• indicating omission of a letter or letters in contractions, e.g. will’ve,
haven’t, and describe clearly how to use the apostrophe in each of
the instances so far learnt
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t h e A p o s t r o p h e
Commas
Definition: The word ‘comma’ has come to us through Latin,

expression.
The comma separates
It does this in several ways.
Items in a list
It marks off items in a list. There is usually no comma preceding
the last item, as it is replaced by the word ‘and’.
For example:
I emptied my pocket and found a locker key, a 20-cent piece, a Mintie,
a small screw and a piece of string.
Sense groups
It separates sense groups. This applies to phrases and clauses. At
this stage students will probably not understand these terms, but
they can be shown how the comma indicates where we should
pause when reading aloud. We may raise our voice a little at the
comma, to show that we have not yet reached the end of the
sentence. We might use this pause to take a quick breath.
For example:
He slipped into the classroom, just before the bell.
Or to mark off an extra piece of information:
The driver, Mr Cramp, pulled back the gearstick.
When writing, we need to imagine how we would like someone to
read what we have written and use commas accordingly.
Sometimes the positioning of commas is extremely important
or our sentence could give quite the wrong meaning.
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c o M M A s