Basic Rules for Primary School English [Apostrophes, Contractions and Tenses]

How to use apostrophes?

I have summarized some basic rules for using apostrophes to help Natalie clear up some confusion over the usage of apostrophes.  There are also some resources that I found online.  Hope that they are useful to you too. 

1.  Using apostrophes to show possession. Add ’s [an apostrophe and the letter s ]to a singular noun or irregular plural noun to show possession.

    Examples:

Singular noun

            a) A creature’s body

            b) The girl’s dress

            c) Miss Ng’s book

Irregular plural noun

           a) Children’s

           b) Teeth’s

2. Using apostrophes to show possession. Add s’ [an apostrophe after the s] to plural nouns which are regular.

    Examples:

           a) other creatures’ shells

           b)the boys’ bags

3. Add ’s [an apostrophe and the letter s ] to the second name only, if there are 2 people that possess the same item.

    Example: Natalie and Emmanuel’s house

4.Apostrophes are used for contractions.

   Examples:

         a) I’m

         b) Don’t

         c) I’ll

Click to see a list of contractions.

There is also a useful table to help kids understand English tenses.  

Usually, I would print them out these tables or rules and laminate them to put up around the house so that the children can look at them regularly. Visual learning is important because children tend to forget what they have learnt unless they constantly see it and revise them.

I hope this is useful. Do share these resources with your friends.