You wouldn't think so, but punctuation can often play a part in spelling a word correctly. You not only need to know where to put the correct letters, but you must also know whether the word needs a hyphen, space, or apostrophe. The reason there's a whole chapter on these things is that they fool and confuse a lot of people! If remembering what words need hyphens or apostrophes feels too overwhelming, just concentrate on a small number of specific words to master.

Showing Ownership

Possessive nouns are nouns that show possession or ownership. For most words, all you have to do is add 's to a word.

In each of these examples, can you pick out how the 's shows possession? The pencil and the DVD are both objects that you can actually pick up and hold. It is easy to see how these can belong to the student and the boy. In the next example, the arm is part of the girl's body. It isn't an object you can possess like a pencil or a DVD, but your arm definitely belongs to you. In the same way, the windows are a part of the house.

The last two examples — the mother's kisses and the doctor's answer — are a little more difficult to see. Kisses and answers aren't things you can see or hold, but the 's at the end of the word shows where they are coming from. The kisses come from the mother and the answer comes from the doctor.

See if you can turn these long phrases into short possessive phrases.

the feet of the baby — — — —

the shoes that belong to the boy — — —

the building that belongs to the city — — —

the program at the school — — —

the largest race in Missouri — — —

Is It Singular or Plural?

All of the words we've looked at so far have been singular nouns. This means there is only one of them. When there is more than one of an object, it is called a plural noun. Usually, all you do to turn a singular noun into a plural noun is add an s to the end of the word. Chapter 6 will go over all of the different ways to make a plural noun, but here are a few examples so we can talk about how to make a plural noun possessive.