Category: Videos

Tuesday Tutorials… Helping you with your grammar… one small tutorial at a time! Brought to you by Rakestraw Book Design rakestrawbookdesign.com Its and It’s Okay. You’re writing and suddenly you can’t remember if you need it’s or its. When in doubt, use the apostrophe, right? WRONG. There is a simple way to double check if you’re using the right version. Its This is possessive. Unlike most possessive words like Mom’s flowers, Sarah’s jeans or the man’s tie, when you use the possessive of it you don’t use an apostrophe. Why? Because the apostrophe is already being used in the other form… see the next paragraph. For example: The dog chewed its food carefully instead of gulping. It’s This is NOT possessive. This is a contraction of the words ‘it is.’ If you can replace ‘it’s’ in your sentence with ‘it is,’ use the apostrophe. For example: It’s not my fault the cat escaped when the door was open. This can also be written: It is not my fault the cat escaped when the door was open. This is the contraction version, so use the apostrophe. Is it all clear? This is a simple rule to remember, so there won’t be any trouble figuring out which one to use in the future when you write. Just ask yourself that little question… can I replace it with ‘it is’? If not, you are probably using it as a possessive, which means… all together now…. no apostrophe! Happy writing!

English Bell Work #2 Apostrophes Apostrophes have three uses 1) To form possessives of nouns 2) To show the omission of letters 3) To indicate certain plurals of lowercase letters (and numbers). Whos the partys candidate for vice president this year? Who’s the party’s candidate for vice president this year? The fox had its right foreleg caught securely in the traps jaws. The fox had its right foreleg caught securely in the trap’s jaws. My address has three 7s, and Tims phone number has four 2s. My address has three 7’s, and Tim’s phone number has four 2’s. Music by incompetech.com Setences provided by: owl.english.purdue.edu

Some tricky situations arrive when Mr and Mrs Lee and Mr Lees all own dogs and we need to show possession. Creon’s Grammar Workshops are a series of short videos on academic writing made from the Learning Skills Centre at the University of Canterbury, in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Project for Advanced Comp.

Mr. Steve’s Roadside English class hears about the use of apostrophes in contractions and possessive nouns —- This video was made and uploaded with Xtranormal’s State To make your own movie, visit xtranormal.com

Learn how to make possessive nouns in English and do the interactive quizzes.

The politically correct but grammatically incorrect music group The Kalamaja Apostrophe’z and their debut single “Stop The Party!” from the critically yet to be acclaimed “Please Listen To This”.