Two jobs, one mark: apostrophes
The Short Answer
An apostrophe does one of two jobs: it stands in for missing letters, as in don't, or it shows belonging, as in the dog's lead. Deciding which job is in play comes first, because the rules for the two are completely separate. For belonging, the position of the apostrophe relative to the s tells the reader how many owners there are.
What does an apostrophe do?
Two entirely separate things, and almost every mistake comes from confusing them.
It stands in for missing letters. Do not becomes don't. Cannot becomes can't. The apostrophe marks the gap where the letters were.
It shows belonging. The dog's lead. Nothing is missing here; the mark is doing a completely different job.
So the first question is never where does the apostrophe go? It is which job is it doing?
Missing letters
The easier of the two, and worth doing first because it makes the other one clearer.
Read the word out in full. If it expands — don't to do not, she'll to she will, it's to it is — then letters are missing and the apostrophe sits exactly where they were.
That expansion test also settles the most contested apostrophe in English, which we will come to.
Belonging
Here the apostrophe's position carries meaning, and it is meaning a reader depends on.
Before the s: one owner. The girl's coat — one girl.
After the s: more than one. The girls' coats — several girls.
The one that takes no apostrophe
Its shows belonging and has no apostrophe at all.
That looks like an exception until you notice the company it keeps: his, hers, ours, theirs, yours — none of them take one either. Possessive pronouns simply do not.
It's was already spoken for by the shortened form of it is, so the possessive went without.
Test it by expanding: the dog wagged it is tail is nonsense, so it is its.
Where do pupils lose marks?
Apostrophes in ordinary plurals. Fresh apple's is the national error, and nothing belongs to the apples.
Placing the mark before working out the owner, which turns the question into a coin toss.
Writing it's for the possessive, which the expansion test catches every time.
Try it yourself
For each one, say which job the apostrophe is doing — missing letters or belonging — before you place it.
- Punctuate: The girls coats were left in the hall. (several girls)
- Punctuate: The girls coat was left in the hall. (one girl)
- Which is right: 'The dog wagged its tail' or 'The dog wagged it's tail'?
- Punctuate: The childrens playground was closed.
- What is wrong with a market sign reading: Fresh apple's, £2 a bag.
- The girls' coats were left in the hall. Belonging, more than one owner, so the apostrophe goes after the s that is already there.
- The girl's coat was left in the hall. Belonging, one owner, so the apostrophe goes before the s.
- its. Belonging, and its is the one possessive that takes no apostrophe — because it's is already taken by the shortened form of it is. Expand it to check: 'the dog wagged it is tail' is nonsense.
- The children's playground was closed. Children is already plural without an s, so the apostrophe goes before the s you add. The after-the-s rule only applies when the plural already ends in s.
- It is an ordinary plural, not a possession, so it needs no apostrophe at all: Fresh apples. Nothing belongs to the apples. This is the commonest apostrophe error in the country and it is worth pointing out in the wild.
How much practice does this type need at home?
Read signs. Genuinely — greengrocers, pub chalkboards, handwritten notices in shop windows. Apostrophe errors are everywhere, and spotting them in the wild teaches more than a worksheet because your child has to notice the mark before judging it.
Ask two questions each time: which job is it doing, and how many owners are there? A child who asks those in that order will get this right for life, not merely for the test.
Free: an English workbook
Questions across the English question types, with the method printed at the top and full answers at the back. One workbook for the whole strand, not a sheet per question type.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does my child decide which job the apostrophe is doing?
Ask whether letters are missing. Can't is cannot with letters gone; don't is do not. If letters have been removed, the apostrophe marks the gap and that is the whole story. If nothing is missing, the apostrophe must be showing belonging, and then the question becomes how many owners there are. Naming the job before placing the mark prevents almost every error in this family.
Before the s or after it?
Before the s means one owner: the girl's coat. After the s means more than one: the girls' coats. The trick is to work out the owner first and write it down, then add the apostrophe — if the owner is 'girls', the apostrophe follows what is already written. Children who decide the position first and the owner afterwards get it right roughly half the time.
What about children's and men's?
Those plurals do not end in s, so there is no s for the apostrophe to follow. Write the owner — children — then add apostrophe and s: children's. The after-the-s rule exists only to avoid writing two s's in a row, so where the plural has no s the ordinary rule applies.
Why does its break the pattern?
It does not break it so much as lose a coin toss. Possessive pronouns never take apostrophes — his, hers, ours, theirs, yours — and its belongs to that family. The apostrophe version was needed for the shortened form of it is, so the possessive went without. Grouping it with hers and theirs makes it look ordinary rather than exceptional.
Sources
- GL Assessment — 11+ familiarisation materials and question type descriptions Published 2025.
- Clever Clogs Academy — our own Year 4 and Year 5 lesson records, Winslow Published September 2025 to July 2026.
We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to GL Assessment or Buckinghamshire Council. Test arrangements change; always check the council's own pages for the current year's dates.
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