|
Language Arts - Punctuation - Apostrophes Showing Possession
Apostrophes
Apostrophes can be used to show that someone owns something or that something belongs to something else. Here are a couple of examples:
Jill's dog just ate your sandwich. Is that Jack's dog over there in the park?
To show possession we just add an apostrophe and an "s" onto the end of a singular noun. Most often we do this to someone's name, but as you can see from this very sentence names aren't the only thing we add apostrophe-s to. Here are some more examples of the meaning of adding apostrophe-s.
APOSTROPHE-S MEANING
Greg's kite The kite that belongs to Greg.
Mary's lamb The lamb that belongs to Mary.
When we speak of possession we don't always mean ownership. For instance, when we speak of "Beth's friend" we don't actually mean that Beth owns her friend. A thing can "belong" to someone in many ways. For instance, your parents might assign to you a responsibility as in "Cleaning the bathroom was Joe's responsibility." The responsibility belongs to Joe, but that doesn't mean that he can sell it, for instance.
Think about these examples:
We went to see a play at Jane's church.
We drove to the fair in Joe's friend's parent's car.
We listened to Edna's favorite radio station.
Sometimes more than one thing possesses another thing. In these cases we place the apostrophe a little differently. Consider this example:
The boys' game will start at noon.
We stopped to watch the children's game.
We stopped to watch the girls' game.
APOSTROPHE-S MEANING
Greg's kite The kite that belongs to Greg.
the class' project The project that belongs to the class.
the babies' cries The cries that belong to the babies.
the birds' nests The nests that belong to the birds.
