Apostrophes show up on the ACT English exam fairly often. The good news is that apostrophe questions are usually straightforward once you know what to look for.
Here’s what you need to know.
Apostrophes do two things you need to remember:
Here’s how to use apostrophes to make nouns possessive.
To make a regular noun possess something (show ownership), add apostrophe + s to the end of the noun.
If there is more than one “owner” (the noun is plural), add s + apostrophe.
(Note that the s in the plural possessive form is there to make the noun plural. For example, with actress, you have to add -es to form the plural actresses.)
Check out the summary below to help you remember the two possessive apostrophe rules on test day.
In writing and speech, you often repeat the same word pairs (have not, I am, we are, etc.). Over time, English has developed shorter versions of these common pairs.
These shortened word pairs are called contractions.
Wherever the “chop” happens, you put an apostrophe.
That’s almost everything you need to know about apostrophes, aside from a few notable exceptions.
Sometimes the two apostrophe rules (possession and contractions) can seem to collide on the ACT. This happens when a word could look like a contraction but could also be mistaken for a possessive.
For example, He’s always means he is. It does not mean his. English already has the word his for the possessive form of he, so he’s is never possessive.
A particularly important case is its vs. it’s. We don’t have a separate possessive word like his or her for it, so:
Because it is always singular, you will never see its’ as the correct answer on ACT English.
Because you’re bound to encounter “it’s/its” questions on ACT English, we made a separate chapter (see It’s and its) that covers the concept in more depth.
Here’s the way you’ll see apostrophes on the ACT English test.
I saw dolphins leap from the oceans blue surface.
A. NO CHANGE
B. oceans’ blue
C. oceans blue’s
D. ocean’s blue
These are the steps you use to answer ACT apostrophe questions correctly. Think of these steps as a checklist you can run through on any apostrophe question.
First, figure out whether this question is testing contraction apostrophes or possessive apostrophes. A reliable way to do that is to ask:
Is the word that has an apostrophe combining two words? (Y/N)
Take a look at the options.
A. NO CHANGE
B. oceans’ blue
C. oceans blue’s
D. ocean’s blue
Are the words with apostrophes combining two words?
No, they do not combine words.
Now use Step 2: determine what the word is possessing (showing ownership of). To do that, you need to take a wider view of the sentence.
By “take a wider view,” we mean you should look at the entire sentence, not just the answer choices.
So, look at the full sentence.
I saw dolphins leap from the oceans blue surface.
A. NO CHANGE
B. oceans’ blue
C. oceans blue’s
D. ocean’s blue
Now you can see that ocean is the word showing possession: the surface belongs to the ocean.
That means you need an apostrophe attached to ocean, not to blue.
So you can eliminate:
Now use Step 3: determine whether the apostrophe belongs on the left or right of the “s.”
Ask yourself: is there one ocean in the sentence, or more than one?
Which one fits here: ocean’s or oceans’?
Answer: ocean’s. A person can usually only see dolphins jump from one ocean at a time. So, since the base word is ocean, you add apostrophe + s.
You now know how apostrophes work on ACT English.
There are three primary things to remember on test day: what an apostrophe does (it either shows possession or makes a contraction) and the ACT apostrophe checklist.
Now that you know how to use an apostrophe, complete the practice questions to make sure you’re ready when test day comes.
Sign up for free to take 16 quiz questions on this topic