Summary of "Apostrophes for Possession | Possessive Nouns | EasyTeaching"

Main ideas / lessons

Apostrophes have multiple uses, including:
- Contractions (showing omitted letters), e.g., could not → couldn’t, they have → they’ve.
- Possession/ownership, meaning something belongs to someone or something else.
A possessive noun is the noun that “owns” or is in possession of something (e.g., in “The dog’s bowl”, dog’s shows possession).
Rule focus: where to place the apostrophe depends on whether the possessed noun is singular, plural, irregular plural, or part of a proper noun.

Add an apostrophe before the S:
- The teacher’s desk
- The baby’s mother
- My friend’s house
The apostrophe indicates possession/ownership of the noun following it.

Move the apostrophe after the S:
- If more than one dog: The dogs’ bowl
For regular plural nouns, apostrophe placement is typically after the final S.

Irregular plural nouns form plurals without simply adding S/ES (e.g., tooth → teeth, woman → women, child → children).
Place the apostrophe before the S:
- The woman’s idea (one woman)
- The women’s idea (more than one woman)
- The child’s toys
- The children’s toys

If a proper noun ends with S (e.g., James), it is acceptable to:
- either add or omit the final S before adding the apostrophe:
  - James’s books
  - (The video notes leaving off the final S is also correct.)

Singular possessive:
- The teacher’s desk is tidy.
- The baby’s mother is tired.
Contractions vs possession:
- That’s is identified as a contraction for “that is”, not a possession form.
Plural possessive:
- The dogs’ bowl is empty.
- If the desk belonged to more than one teacher: The teachers’ desk is tidy.

The video gives sentences missing apostrophes and instructs viewers to:

Find the possessive nouns
Determine whether they’re singular, regular plural, or irregular plural
Place the apostrophe accordingly

The video provides these possessive forms:
- girls’ play date (apostrophe after the S, regular plural)
- brother’s bedroom (appears to be treated as singular in the provided example)
- men’s fishing trip (irregular plural, apostrophe placed after men and before the added S; i.e., before the final S)