SAT Reading & Writing: Use apostrophes correctly for possession vs. contraction
25+ practice questions in Praczo
The concept, explained
- 1
Singular possession: add ’s (the student’s laptop). Plural possession ending in -s: add only an apostrophe (the students’ laptops).
- 2
Irregular plurals not ending in -s (children, women, men) take ’s: children’s, women’s.
- 3
Contractions use apostrophes to mark missing letters: it’s = it is; they’re = they are; who’s = who is.
- 4
Possessive pronouns never take apostrophes: its, yours, hers, theirs, ours, whose. "It’s" always means "it is" (or "it has").
- 5
Quick test: if you can substitute "it is" or "it has" and the sentence still makes sense, use it’s. Otherwise, use its.
- ✗ Writing "it’s" when the sentence means "belonging to it" (possessive), or "its" when the sentence means "it is."
- ✗ Adding an apostrophe to simple plurals ("apple’s for sale") instead of just -s.
- ✗ Placing the apostrophe incorrectly on plural possessives: "the girl’s uniforms" when referring to multiple girls should be "the girls’ uniforms."
SAT-style practice
Which sentence uses apostrophes correctly?
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