How to teach apostrophes without guessing
Teach your child when apostrophes show missing letters or ownership, with clear examples, a ten-minute sorting activity and explained answers.
Your child can recognise singular and plural nouns.
Teach apostrophes by asking what the mark does in the sentence. It can show missing letters in a shortened expression, or a possessive relationship such as who owns a bag. It does not usually make a word plural. Work on one use first, then compare them.
Understand the idea
For contractions, say, "Let's open the shortened word and find the missing letters." In don't, the full expression is do not. The apostrophe marks the missing o. In she's, the full expression might be she is or she has, depending on the sentence.
For ownership, ask, "Who does this belong to? Write that owner first." One girl owns a hat, so write the girl's hat. Several girls own their hats, so write the girls' hats. The apostrophe follows the complete owner word. A plural owner that already ends in s needs only the apostrophe.
Some plurals do not end in s. Write the children's shoes, because children is already plural. Add 's to show ownership. Compare this with the child's shoes, which belong to one child.
See it worked through
One owner
the dog's bowl
Several owners
the dogs' bowls
Missing letters
don't = do not
Just a plural
three dogs
One dog, several dogs and a shortened word
The dog's bowl is beside the door.
The owner is one dog. Add 's after dog.
The dogs' bowls are beside the door.
The owners are several dogs. Write the plural first, then put the apostrophe after its s.
The dogs don't like the new bowls.
Dogs only tells us there is more than one dog, so it has no apostrophe. Don't means do not, so it needs one for the missing letter.
Ask your child to explain the change in meaning between the first two sentences. Counting apostrophes is less useful than identifying the owner.
Try it together
A ten-minute apostrophe sort
Write three headings on paper: "Missing letters", "Ownership" and "Neither". Explain the headings using one example, then read these sentences together.
- The rabbits ate the carrots.
- I cant find the red pencil.
- The teachers bag fell open.
- The childrens paintings filled the wall.
- Its raining outside.
- The robot moved its arm.
Tell your child that number 3 describes one teacher. Ask them to sort each sentence, then repair any missing apostrophe. Read their answers aloud and ask why each apostrophe belongs there.
Check the answer
- Neither. Rabbits and carrots are ordinary plurals.
- Missing letters. Can't means cannot.
- Ownership. Write the teacher's bag for one teacher.
- Ownership. Write the children's paintings. The plural children needs 's.
- Missing letters. Write it's raining, because it is raining makes sense.
- Neither. Its arm shows possession without an apostrophe.
Check their understanding
Ask your child to write a sentence about a bike belonging to one neighbour, then a sentence about bikes belonging to several neighbours. Look for neighbour's bike and neighbours' bikes. Ask, "Which word tells me who owns the bikes?"
If they write bike's because there are several bikes, return to a plain plural such as three bikes. Practise that distinction before adding more ownership examples. During editing, ask them to check only apostrophes on one pass through their writing. Looking for every possible error at once makes the task harder.
Make it easier or harder
Make it easier by practising only contractions with familiar expressions such as do not, is not and we are. Give your child the full expression to shorten.
Make it harder by mixing singular owners, plurals ending in s and irregular plurals. Ask them to explain the women's team and the players' boots. Keep names ending in s for a separate lesson, using the convention their school teaches.
Teaching notes
The Australian Government Style Manual's apostrophe guidance explains contractions, possessive nouns and possessive words such as its. This home activity uses original sentences and focuses on those everyday distinctions.
Spelling, grammar and punctuation practice
Practise spelling, grammar and punctuation in context, then talk through the answers together.
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