Apostrophes to show possession Apostrophes are probably the most misused of all punctuation marks. This week we hope to clarify how apostrophes are used to show possession, with a great set of worksheets suitable for children in the middle to upper primary age range. Knowing how they came about may help to understand possessive apostrophes and it all goes back to medieval times. Over 500 years ago possession was shown using a phrase like: ‘the boy, his conker’. Over a long period of time this became shortened in speech to ‘the boyis conker’ and then simply ‘the boys conker’. However, in writing, this needed to be clarified so an apostrophe was used to denote the missing letters: the boy's conker. (Just like apostrophes are used today to show missing letters.) It is not just people who can possess something, as this also applies to objects. An object can possess something, such as the leaves of a flower can be shortened to the flower’s leaves (the flower, its leaves). Other examples are the car’s headlight, the ship’s horn and so on. Simple really, except for one thing; none of the examples shown end in the letter s. This is where it all gets rather confusing! The problem is that some words that end in s are plural and some are not. If the word is plural and ends in s we just put an apostrophe after the last s. e.g. the cars (plural): the cars’ lights. This shows us that there is more than one car. If the word is singular and ends in s we add an apostrophe and an s e.g. the princess (singular):  the princess’s shoes This shows us that there is only one princess. Brilliant, but some plurals do not end in s, such as the word children. In these cases we revert to the ’s e.g. the children’s toys. All should now be solved, except some names have dropped their apostrophe as a matter of convenience or for advertising reasons. Lloyds Bank does not have an apostrophe at all, neither does Pears soap and the great golf course is known as St Andrews, not St Andrew’s. Finally we take a look at it’s and its. It’s with the apostrophe is a short way of writing it is. e.g. It’s a lovely sunny day. Its without the apostrophe is used to show possession or belonging. e.g. The cat licked its paws. Go to apostrophe for possession worksheets