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Grammar
Course: Grammar > Unit 6
Lesson 5: Introduction to the possessiveIntroduction to the possessive
Apostrophes can help show when something belongs to someone. Paige and David explain how!
Want to join the conversation?
- Khan Academy said this:
"The exception to this rule is when you use pronouns (it → its, he → his, she → her/hers, me → my/mine, they → their/theirs, our → our/ours). Apostrophes are not used to show possession with pronouns."
I am so confused if this is true. I have learned that if someone owns something, add an apostrophe before the s. Even if the word "it" owns something.
Ex: That is it's seed.
From the quote up above, they say pronouns DON'T have an apostrophe. Which is correct?(24 votes)- Exactly, David. The correct way to write, " That is it's seed," is, " That is its seed."(6 votes)
- I don't get it. What happens if the word ends in 2 s's, like dress?(14 votes)
- While the regular plural of dress is dresses, the possessive form would be "dress's" which sounds the same way as "dresses." The same goes for "class"(10 votes)
- @David Alexander-
Are you a teacher in Khan Academy or just a student. Because if someone does not know the answer to a question, you will help them the same day or the next day! Are you a teacher or just a very good helper?(7 votes)- I hope that I'm a very good helper.(21 votes)
- Does the word its' exist.(4 votes)
- No. It does not exist, as it does not indicate plurals (it is at the end of the word), it is not a contraction (again, it is at the end of the word), and there is no noun "its" to make a possessive out of (the cats' furballs, etc.).(0 votes)
- If I say "Oh my friend is still in the mall" ( How do I put a Apostrophe In "is still" ) or it is normal?(4 votes)
- If you want to shorten it, you need to say "Oh, my friend's still in the mall." You do not shorten is still, you shorten my friend is.
Hope this helped, even if it was 6 years ago!(4 votes)
- I just wanted to know what is the possessive form it(4 votes)
- what happened to the word ends with 2s's.(3 votes)
- I wear glasses. Sometimes the little screw that holds the earpiece to the spectacles piece gets loose and falls out. Then I have to look all around for my glasses' screw. (There, did THAT work?)(6 votes)
- Why do we need to learn a possessive?(1 vote)
- Let's see. If I find a bunch of chopped off fingers on the ground, I might wonder from whom they came. If I ask you, and you respond, "They're Stephan's fingers." Then you've used the possessive.
Of course, you could use a locution such as, "They are the fingers of Stephen." But that's the long way around.(9 votes)
- I think you forgot to mention that you don’t use an apostrophe s (‘s) when the last letter of the word is an s. Instead, you use just an apostrophe. For example: you don’t say James’s, you say James’(3 votes)
- Wait, I just realized he will talk about it in the next video, my bad.(4 votes)
- Am I the only one here who's watched Hamilton?(4 votes)
Video transcript
- [Voiceover] Hello
grammarians, hello Paige. - [Voiceover] Hi David. - [Voiceover] In the driver's seat. - [Voiceover] So, Paige,
today, it is my understanding that we are gonna talk
about the possessive. - [Voiceover] That's right. - [Voiceover] What even is
the possessive in English? What does that mean when we say that? What does it mean to possess something? - [Voiceover] Right, so that means to own something or to have something. - [Voiceover] Okay, so this
relates to the apostrophe, in that we use the
apostrophe in many cases, we use the apostrophe s in
many cases to show possession. Right, so if I were
talking about, there are a couple of ways to show that something belongs to someone or
something in English, like I could say, the carrot that belonged to that rabbit was delicious. - [Voiceover] Yeah, but
that's pretty complicated, and can make sentences much
longer than they need to be. - [Voiceover] So what's
a simpler way of saying the carrot that belonged to
the rabbit was delicious. - [Voiceover] You can say something like the rabbit's carrot was delicious. - [Voiceover] Oh, interesting,
so you're actually containing, there's like
a lot of information that's contained within the
rabbit's, that little thing. 'Cause you're expressing the relationship between the rabbit and the carrot, just with that little apostrophe s, that contains so much information in it. - [Voiceover] Yeah, the
whole idea of the rabbit owning the carrot comes
from that apostrophe s. - [Voiceover] That's super cool. - [Voiceover] Yeah,
it's a pretty big deal. - [Voiceover] So this
doesn't just apply to common nouns, like rabbits, this can also apply to proper nouns, like people, or countries, or businesses, or whatever. - [Voiceover] Totally.
- [Voiceover] Or movies. - [Voiceover] Yeah, anything, I think - [Voiceover] Okay, so
to pull a completely random figure from American history, let's say Alexander
Hamilton had a surfboard. - [Voiceover] Okay. - [Voiceover] So, we could say, using the apostrophe s construction,
we could refer to Alexander Hamilton's surfboard, right? - [Voiceover] Right, the surfboard that belongs to Alexander Hamilton. - [Voiceover] Alright, so that
seems pretty straightforward. If we wanna show possession,
we just add an apostrophe s. Is that true in all cases though? - [Voiceover] Well, okay, not always. - [Voiceover] Okay, so there's a wrinkle. - [Voiceover] Of course,
there's always a wrinkle. - [Voiceover] Introduce
for us this wrinkle, Paige. - [Voiceover] So, there's an exception to this rule of using apostrophe s for possession when
you're using a pronoun. - [Voiceover] Ah!
- [Voiceover] Right. - [Voiceover] So, rabbit
and Alexander Hamilton are both nouns, but there are pronouns like it, or he, or she, where you don't use an apostrophe to show possessive. - [Voiceover] So if I wanted to say, that surfboard is his, there's no apostrophe in there, right? - [Voiceover] Right. - [Voiceover] Or, we
could just as easily say his surfboard, and I think
that's the same as saying that surfboard is Alexander Hamilton's. And you can see that there's
this real, it makes sense to want to put a possessive
apostrophe s in there, right, but that's not what you do. - [Voiceover] Right. - [Voiceover] This is this one kind of obnoxious exception to the rule. So, for possessive pronouns, they don't, they just, they never take apostrophes. - [Voiceover] That's right. - [Voiceover] Okay, so
the possessive in English usually formed with apostrophe s, The rabbit's carrot was delicious, Alexander Hamilton's surfboard, but when we're talking
about possessive pronouns like his, or hers, or ours, or theirs, or my, or its, no apostrophes are needed. Possessive pronouns
never take apostrophes. - [Voiceover] You got it. - [Voiceover] Sweet, thanks Paige. - [Voiceover] Thank you. - [Voiceover] You can
learn anything, David out. - [Voiceover] Paige out.