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Grammar
Course: Grammar > Unit 6
Lesson 4: Apostrophes and contractionsIntroduction to the apostrophe
David and Paige, KA’s resident grammarians, introduce a new piece of punctuation: the apostrophe!
Want to join the conversation?
- Hello!
I was just wondering if you're going to talk about using an apostrophe in place of quotation marks when when you are referring to someone speaking who has quoted something.
example: "I wasn't talking about the leafs when i said 'Pick everything off the trees,' I was only talking about the apples," Jeramy said in a panic.(32 votes)- Hi Max! This is an excellent idea. We had not planned to cover that, but if we have time, we would like to return to it. Thank you for bringing this up!
P.S. Great example sentence!(26 votes)
- Who decides when can you use contractions?(4 votes)
- Typically, you want to avoid using contractions in essays and other scholarly writings since they are supposed to be formal.(19 votes)
- Since we're on the topic of apostrophes, I have a question about them. I know that 'its' as in describing possession doesn't have an apostrophe, but why? It shows belonging doesn't it?(5 votes)
- None of the possessive pronouns have an apostrophe: hers, yours, ours etc. The same goes for its.(7 votes)
- Wait! Can't apostrophes be used in this way, too?
Frederick turned to Danielle. He grunted, "You
are willin' to do this, right?"
Can it be used to shorten words like this?(6 votes)- Many people, when speaking English, drop the final 'g' of words ending with '-ing.' That's the way they talk, and it is not wrong.
Speech comes first, but the sound, unless recorded, filters away into the ether.
Writing exists to create a physical record of what was spoken. If I wish, in writing, to record what something sounded like, I will write what was heard, so sometimes I will use "willin'." However, if my wish is merely to record the intended meaning of a person's speech, I will add the 'g' and let it go at that.(0 votes)
- How are you supposed to put quotes in quotes? Is it the same or a different key? If so, what is it?(3 votes)
- You can try using the single quote, which is usually on the same key as the double quote (but you don't need to press the shift key first, like you do for the double quote).
Here is what they look like:
- 'single quotes'
- "double quotes"
Examples:
- My friend Elias said, "The teacher just told us 'Stop it right now!' so I think we better put our phones away before we get detention."
- "Listen!" Mom whispered. "Do you hear that 'meow meow' coming from up there? I think kitty is stuck on the roof."
Hope this helps!(6 votes)
- does Paige have a dog named Atti?🤔(2 votes)
- No idea
Though I'm fairly sure that David doesn't have a cursed skull.(7 votes)
- My last name is O'Connor. Which of these 3 does this apostrophe fall under?(0 votes)
- ++ to Trek's explanation;
Ó
orUa
is Gaelic fordescendant
, and was anglicized asO'
, probably because it was simpler than using a diacritic mark (which English doesn't really have).
I would say that theO'
inO'Connor
falls under none of the three categories of usage, and is its own particular use case.(9 votes)
- So I am confusion, how is one your and another one your'e. Khan Academy explain(2 votes)
- I'm not, 'Khan Academy' but I'd be glad to help :)
The term 'your' means, it's belonging to YOU.
The term 'you're' means, 'YOU ARE'
For example:
'You're very smart!' = You are very smart! (correct)
What is you're name? = What is you are name? (incorrect)(5 votes)
- At, you discuss contracting two words. Sometimes Irish last names contract O + a last name (O + Dowd, O + Leary) - which means "Of the ___ family" - does this have a different name than contracting two words? Since it's technically contracting a word plus a proper noun, does this get a special classification in grammar? 1:24(4 votes)
- Would you not also use an apostrophe when denoting a specific set of numbers, like 40's or 1800's?(3 votes)
- I used to, but my spouse dissuaded me from doing so. It appears that she was correct in doing so.(2 votes)
Video transcript
- [Voiceover] Hello Grammarians Hello Paige, - [Voiceover] Hi, David. - [Voiceover] Hello apostrophe! Today we're going to start talking about a different piece of punctuation and that piece of
punctuation is the apostrophe it kind of looks like a comma, but it's one that floats in the air Here's the ground, here's the word ground, And if we say Paige's dog Atti we're using the apostrophe,
not shown to scale obviously in one of its three
different applications. So the apostrophe can do three things. Thing number one: it can
stand in for missing letters. - [Voiceover] So when
an apostrophe stands in for missing letters that's
called a contraction - [Voiceover] So what does that look like, what does a contraction
look like in context? - [Voiceover] So another
way to say something like "I did not eat the cookie." Is to say "I didn't eat the cookie." - [Voiceover] So that
apostrophe there represents the 'O' being taken out
and everything being squished together into
this new word 'didn't' So "Did not" gets (sucks) together, and then we attach this
apostrophe to show that we've contracted, or shortened
or shrunk, these two words. - [Voiceover] Right. - [Voiceover] Paige, join
me on screen number two and let's talk about thing number two. - [Voiceover] Let's go. - [Voiceover] So the second
thing that an apostrophe can do is show that something belongs to someone, what we call possession. - [Voiceover] So you
can use an apostrophe to say something like "That's
David's cursed skull." - [Voiceover] It's true. It's been in my family for generations. But what is going on here? What is this doing the same work as? - [Voiceover] So the
sentence basically means that cursed skull belongs to David. This first sentence, "That's
David's cursed skull" is kind of just an easier way to say that. - [Voiceover] So apostrophes
can show contraction much like we're also doing in this part of the sentence
as well with "That's", because this is a shorter version of "That is David's cursed skull." but we're condensing that or
contracting that into "That's" but it's also being used
for its second purpose here which is "David's", and
this is what we call the possessive or the genitive case. Saying that, this cursed
skull belongs to me. Paige, what's the third
use of apostrophes? It's pretty rare. - [Voiceover] The third use
does not happen very often, but apostrophes can occasionally be used to make words plural. - [Voiceover] Okay,
because I was always taught never to use apostrophes
to pluralize stuff. Like the plural of book is books, not "Book's". That's wrong. - [Voiceover] Yeah, so there a-- - [Voiceover] This is the plural, and this is something belonging to a book. - [Voiceover] Right, the book's pages. - [Voiceover] Right. - [Voiceover] So there's
really only one case where you'd want to use an apostrophe to make something plural. - [Voiceover] What is that case? - [Voiceover] That case is when you're trying to make the plural
of lower case letter. - [Voiceover] Like, "I'm
really bad at drawing 's's." - [Voiceover] Right. If you
didn't have that apostrophe there, it might kinda
just look like (hisses) - [Voiceover] So I could say, for example, "I like to draw j's" and "Remember to dot your j's and i's" Like that, to denote that their plural, to indicate there's
some kind of separation between this lowercase letter
and this lowercase letter. And that we're trying to say that there are multiple j's and i's. - [Voiceover] Right. Especially
with something like i's, if you didn't have that apostrophe there, it would probably just look like you were trying to write the word is. - [Voiceover] Sure. So this is kind of a work-around. - [Voiceover] Exactly. - [Voiceover] So this
usage is extremely rare, that's why I put it in parentheses, because I really want to
de-emphasize this last usage. Super rare. So more importantly the first two things are the most important. Number one, contractions
make stuff shorter like "I did not eat the cookie." to "I didn't eat the cookie." And possession, showing ownership. So instead of saying "That
cursed skull belongs to David" you would say "That is
David's cursed skull." - [Voiceover] Exactly. - [Voiceover] And that's an overview of the three powers of the apostrophe. You can learn anything, David out. - [Voiceover] Paige out.