--- title: Apostrophes: missing letters and belonging — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Apostrophes: missing letters and belonging», a lesson of the english course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: An apostrophe is a little raised comma with two jobs: it marks letters that have been squeezed out ("do not" becomes "don't") a --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/34-apostrophes-missing-letters-and-belonging/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/) / Apostrophes: missing letters and belon… # Apostrophes: missing letters and belonging Lesson 34 of the english course of Mova's primary school: 17 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/english/34-apostrophes-missing-letters-and-belonging/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/34-apostrophes-missing-letters-and-belonging/0/) — An apostrophe is a little raised comma with two jobs: it marks letters that have been squeezed out ("do not" becomes "don't") and it shows that something belongs to someone ("the dog's bone"). - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/34-apostrophes-missing-letters-and-belonging/1/) — For missing letters, the apostrophe sits exactly where the letters vanished: in "can't" it stands for the missing "no" of "cannot", like a sticky note saying "something was here". - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/34-apostrophes-missing-letters-and-belonging/3/) — Apostrophes never make ordinary plurals: a market sign saying "Banana's £1" makes people giggle, because it should simply be "Bananas £1". - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/34-apostrophes-missing-letters-and-belonging/4/) — The trickiest pair is its and it's: say "it is" in your head, and if that fits, write "it's"; a Londoner's "It's bare cold" means "It is very cold", while "The dog wagged its tail" has no apostrophe at all. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/34-apostrophes-missing-letters-and-belonging/5/) — An apostrophe can show missing letters in a contraction: don't (do not), can't (cannot), I'm (I am), we're (we are). - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/34-apostrophes-missing-letters-and-belonging/6/) — The apostrophe goes exactly where the letters are missing, not where the words used to meet. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/34-apostrophes-missing-letters-and-belonging/7/) — For one owner, add 's: the dog's bone, Sam's bike. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/34-apostrophes-missing-letters-and-belonging/8/) — For a plural owner that already ends in s, add only an apostrophe: the girls' coats, the teachers' room. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/34-apostrophes-missing-letters-and-belonging/9/) — For a plural that does not end in s, add 's: the children's toys, the men's changing room. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/34-apostrophes-missing-letters-and-belonging/10/) — Ordinary plurals never take an apostrophe: bananas, apples, cars. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/34-apostrophes-missing-letters-and-belonging/11/) — Its (no apostrophe) means belonging to it; it's means it is or it has. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/34-apostrophes-missing-letters-and-belonging/12/) — Whose shows belonging ("Whose coat is this?"); who's means who is or who has. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/34-apostrophes-missing-letters-and-belonging/13/) — For names ending in s, both James's book and James' book are accepted; many schools teach James's. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/34-apostrophes-missing-letters-and-belonging/14/) — Your means belonging to you; you're means you are. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/34-apostrophes-missing-letters-and-belonging/15/) — Were is a past verb; we're means we are. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/34-apostrophes-missing-letters-and-belonging/16/) — In Scotland a "wean" is a child; apostrophe rules work the same with any noun: "the wean's ball". - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/34-apostrophes-missing-letters-and-belonging/17/) — O'clock is short for "of the clock", so its apostrophe also marks missing letters. - ← previous: [Commas: lists, clauses and clarity](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/33-commas-lists-clauses-and-clarity/) - next →: [Direct speech: inverted commas and new speakers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/35-direct-speech-inverted-commas-and-new-speakers/) - ↑ back to [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/)