KS3 English Language: Apostrophes

Apostrophes…

Apostrophes are these little guys. They aren’t these, or this, or that. That’s it. That’s an apostrophe.

Apostrophes have two uses: showing possession or showing when letters or words are deliberately left out.

Ahmed’s adventure has taken a scary turn. It looks like Ahmed is being chased by Angus and his armies.

Ahmed:
Aargh!
Narrator:
And that bridge looks a bit ropey.

By adding an apostrophe and an ‘s’ to the end of Ahmed, we indicate that the adventure is his.

If the noun ends in an ‘s’, you add the apostrophe after the ‘s’. You might then add an extra ‘s’ but only if you would pronounce it that way.

As in Angus’s armies. ‘Angus’s armies’ swords look even more dangerous than the ropey bridge.’

An apostrophe also replaces omitted letters in contractions.

For example, ‘Ahmed is not confident about crossing the bridge’ becomes ‘Ahmed isn’t confident about crossing the bridge,’ with the apostrophe replacing the ‘o’.

'But he’s quite sure that he’d better run away from the armies.’ Here, the apostrophe replaces the ‘i’, when ‘he is’ becomes ‘he’s’.

And the apostrophe replaces the ‘ha’ in ‘he had’, which becomes ‘he’d’.

Unfortunately for Ahmed, someone forgot to replace the old planks.

Ahmed:
Aargh!
Narrator:
Bad luck, chap.

Don’t fall into bad habits…

Remember, apostrophes have two uses: showing possession or showing when letters or words are deliberately left out.

Ahmed’s luck has run out, hasn’t it?