Apostrophes, Speech Marks and Colons

These next marks are small but powerful. Get them wrong and a teacher knows immediately that you rushed.

The apostrophe has two jobs. Belonging: Sipho's bag, the dog's bowl. Shortening: don't instead of do not, it's instead of it is. And notice, its without an apostrophe means belonging to it.

For direct speech you need three things. Quotation marks around the exact words. A comma before the speech starts. And a whole new line whenever the speaker changes. Miss the new line and your reader is lost.

Look carefully. The coach said, comma. Then quotation marks open. Run three laps, then stretch. Full stop, then the marks close. Everything the coach actually said sits inside the marks.

A colon introduces a list: I need three things: a pen, paper and glue. A semicolon joins two ideas that belong together: the rain stopped; we went outside. Do not mix them up.

Now you can use apostrophes correctly, punctuate direct speech, and use a colon before a list. Let's practise.