English Quiz - Apostrophes to Mark Possession (Answers)
Apostrophes are used to show possession: it shows who owns what. This use of the apostrophe is not as straightforward as showing omission and can cause a lot of headaches.
If you don't get full marks when you first play this quiz - don't worry! Many people, even when they are older, struggle with apostrophes, especially when it comes to showing possession. But it really needn't be hard. As long as you know the rules (and the exceptions to the rules, as there always are in English), you will do well. Keep on playing the quiz until you know the correct answers - then you'll be more confident in your writing skills.
Do this 11-plus quiz and hopefully your headache will vanish!
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Irregular plurals add -'s to the end of the plural form, for example: man - men's; woman - women's
|
To form the plural possessive you add -s' to the end of the word, for example: dog- dogs' (more than one dog)
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
To form the singular possessive you add -'s to the end of the word, for example: teacher - teacher's (one teacher)
|
Here, 'people' is considered as a single group of individuals, so its possessive form adds -'s
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Names ending in -s add -'s to the end of the name; however, in the case of ancient names and names that end in a '-iz' sound, some people simply add an apostrophe: Achilles' heel; Mr. Bridges' house. If in doubt, add the -'s: it's probably the safest thing to do
|
With singular and plural compound words, add the -'s to the last word to construct the possessive form. If the compound word needs to be in the plural, form the plural first and then add the -'s, for example: His two sisters-in-law's dogs are Labradors
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
If the object belongs to the same possessors, you need only put an -'s at the end of the last name
|
To form the plural possessive you add -s' to the end of the word, for example: professor - professors' (more than one professor). In the case of words like 'baby', the plural is 'babies': the possessive form of the plural would then be babies' NOT babys' - be on the look out for nouns ending in a 'consonant and -y' because the -y changes to -ies in the plural form. For example: fairy - fairies (plural) - fairies' (possessive)
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
For individual possession, you must add -'s to the end of each possessor: here, one house belongs to Peter and the other belongs to Mary
|
The assistant would obviously use the plural possessive forms. Don't forget: irregular plurals add -'s to the end of the plural form
|