Apostrophes and Speech Marks

Apostrophes and speech marks are two punctuation marks that students often find tricky — but getting them right is very important in the CSSE 11+ English paper. Since SPaG is tested within the English paper itself (not as a separate paper), using these marks correctly in your comprehension answers and creative writing will help you pick up valuable marks.

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Apostrophes: Two Jobs

An apostrophe (') has exactly two jobs in English:

1. Contraction — to show that letters have been missed out
2. Possession — to show that something belongs to someone or something

It does not have any other job. It is never used to make a word plural.

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Apostrophes for Contraction

When two words are shortened into one, an apostrophe marks where the missing letters were.

Full form	Contraction
do not	don't
I will	I'll
they are	they're
it is / it has	it's
could not	couldn't
we have	we've
she would	she'd