Teaching a child the correct placement of apostrophes?

Question

My boyfriend and I are trying to show his son the correct way to place an apostrophe in his spelling words this week....but-we are also having a hard time. Does anyone know of a site that helps children or adults explain it to a 9 year old child. Please, please help!!! Serious inquiries only.

Answer 1

Most of the other advice is accurate; however, the possessive of [it] does not use an apostrophe. [It] with an apostrophe is a contraction. I did a search a found a fun game to play with the different types of apostrophe usage--see source below. There are examples for the different usages in the explanation of the game.

Also, the most important thing to remember is to never use an apostrophe to make a word plural. You will see this error very often, especially in store advertisements and signs.

Although I agree that the child's teacher should provide good examples, I think it is commendable that this child has people in his life who want to help him learn. Many children do not. Keep up the good work.

Answer 2

I'm not aware of a site but I'll tell you what I know.

There are contractions ... don't, doesn't, wouldn't, would've, it's etc.
There is also another meaning to the word "it's" -- If it does not mean "it is" then it is possessive. When a person, place or thing (noun) is possessive of something you show that by placing an apostrophe and an "s" behind the word. Example... Danny's boat... Paula's house... it's thumb... building's windows... etc. If the noun already ends in "s" then you place the apostrophe behind the "s" and that is it. There is no need to put another "s" after the apostrophe if the noun already ends in "s". If you are speaking of a plural noun then the apostrophe would also go behind the "s" it is similar to a noun simply ending in an "s" but there are few exceptions where this rule is needed to be understood. You could say ... The color of my daughter's hair is brown. Or (if you have 2 daughters with brown hair you would express it this way)... The color of my daughters' hair is brown. It's a plural possessive noun. I hope I've helped you. I've never been very good at explaining subjects in English.

Answer 3

Just use the rules of thumb. You only use apostrophes when:

1. You're showing possession.

2. You're taking something out.

There are VERY FEW exceptions to those two rules. You could easily explain them with some examples appropriate to a child. If that fails, there's a site I really love for all my grammar woes. I don't know how much it would help his son, but it'll certainly make things easy for you to learn and then explain.

Answer 4

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Answer 5

I say, talk to his English teacher and tell that teacher your concerns. I am sure you probably are working parents and your tax money is paying for his schooling. So, the school should do their job or get a better English teacher. A good English teacher will be able to help him remember all the little rules that go with the use of apostrophies. Usually the apostrophy replaces the first letter of a helping verb. Cannot be sure, but that is how I figured it. Don't push him too hard because the majority of college studen'ts don't, lol...do not know where it goes either. LOL! Good luck. :)

Answer 6

Try this web page:

http://www.edufind.com/english/grammar/Possesive1.cfm

or this one:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_apost.html

If you are hunting for other websites and pages, Google "grammar" and "possession".