Printable Apostrophes Worksheets
Apostrophe worksheets help elementary students master apostrophes for possessives and contractions while avoiding plural errors. These printable exercises provide sentence editing, symbol placement drills, and answer keys.
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Structured, printable skill sheets with step-by-step guidance for Apostrophes.
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Apostrophe or no apostrophe
Read each phrase
Apostrophe or no apostrophe
Sort phrases by apostrophe or none
Fix the apostrophe error
Fix the apostrophe mistakes in passages
Fix the apostrophe error
Correct or incorrect
its and it's, your and you're
Write its or it's, your or you're
its and it's, your and you're
Tick its or it's, your or you're
When to use an apostrophe
Add apostrophes where they are needed
When to use an apostrophe
Sort by reason for the apostrophe
About Apostrophes
What this skill is
An apostrophe is a punctuation mark used for two distinct purposes in English: to show omission of letters in contractions (can't, don't) and to show possession or ownership in nouns (Liam's backpack, the dogs' water).
When children learn it
Apostrophes in contractions are taught in 1st and 2nd grade. Possessive apostrophes are introduced in 2nd grade and mastered with regular and irregular plurals in 3rd and 4th grade (CCSS L.2.2.c, L.3.2.d).
Teaching Tips
- Ask the two-check question: "Does someone own something, or did letters get squished away?". If neither is happening, tell your child to keep the apostrophe in the pencil box. This stops children from scattering apostrophes over regular plural words.
Common Mistakes
- Using "greengrocer's apostrophes" on simple plural nouns that do not own anything (writing "apple's for sale").
- Confusing contractions with possessive homophones, especially it's (it is) and its (belonging to it).
- Placing the apostrophe after the s on singular words that happen to end in s, such as writing "Jame's" instead of "James's".