What does a child have to do to distinguish contraction and possession in the 11+?

Choose between a possessive form and a contraction in one sentence. It is one of 41 named English skills in the 11+, in the grammar strand, and this page carries 1 interactive exercise that practises it.

What is the trap in an 11+ distinguish contraction and possession question?

An apostrophe looks like a sign of ownership, but possessive pronouns such as its, your and their never take one. The wrong answers on this skill are built out of that, not out of random numbers, so it is worth naming out loud before your child meets it under time pressure.

What is not part of distinguish contraction and possession in the 11+?

The skill map draws the line here: Covers forms such as its and it is or your and you are. It excludes ordinary possessive apostrophe placement. A question past that line is testing a different named English skill, which is worth knowing before you spend a week practising the wrong one.

Which other 11+ skills should we practise alongside distinguish contraction and possession?

The grammar strand holds 9 skills that are tested together, and the pages next to distinguish contraction and possession are distinguish a phrase and clause, maintain consistent tense and match subject and verb. Each has its own exercise and its own link, and none of them needs an account.

How can my child practise distinguish contraction and possession for free?

Use Apostrophe Lens, embedded on this page. It is the exercise the skill map attaches to distinguish contraction and possession, it runs in the browser with no account to make, nothing is scored, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere. It also has its own link, so you can send it to a child without sending them anywhere else first.

English · Grammar

Distinguish contraction and possession

Choose between a possessive form and a contraction in one sentence.

Practise it now

Flip the tile, then drag the lens across the gap and READ what comes out. Lock it in only once the sentence you can see actually works.

It covers most of this skill rather than all of it.

Loading the interactive exercise. Nothing you do here is saved or scored.

A worked example

One question of the kind this skill is tested with, worked all the way through: the reasoning, and what the wrong answers are there to catch.

What is the apostrophe standing in for?

Worked example: see how expanding the short form settles the choice.

An apostrophe in a contraction marks missing letters. Possessive pronouns such as its, your and their never use one.

Both teams left … kit in the changing room.

Choices for the gap: they're, there, theirs, their.

Answer: their

How you get there

"their" fits because it is the possessive form, showing the thing belongs to them. "there" does not fit because it points to a place and shows no ownership at all.

Why the other answers tempt

An apostrophe looks like a sign of ownership, but possessive pronouns such as its, your and their never take one.

If they are stuck, say this

Expand the apostrophe form into the two words it stands for and read the whole sentence again. Only one of the two spellings will still make sense.

Now do it live in Apostrophe Lens

Kitchen-table script for parents

Try this together

A friendly mini script for the breakfast table, school run or a quiet two minutes. Read it aloud as written, or make it your own.

Ready? Let's have a go at Distinguish contraction and possession together. The choices are they're, there, theirs, their. Here comes the question: Worked example: see how expanding the short form settles the choice. Before we race ahead, let us choose one good first step. Here is a helpful clue: Expand the apostrophe form into the two words it stands for and read the whole sentence again. Nice work. Now let us follow the thinking: "their" fits because it is the possessive form, showing the thing belongs to them. "there" does not fit because it points to a place and shows no ownership at all. So our answer is: their. There is one sneaky trap to watch for: An apostrophe looks like a sign of ownership, but possessive pronouns such as its, your and their never take one. Can you show me that first move again in your own words? Brilliant. No rush; we are practising a method you can reuse, not trying to win a speed contest.

What this exercise is doing

Apostrophe Lens

Flip the tile, then drag the lens across the gap and READ what comes out. Lock it in only once the sentence you can see actually works.

Both spellings sound identical, so your ear is no help and your eye has to do the work. There is one test and it never fails: STRETCH IT OUT. your / you're, whose / who's, their / they're, its / it's - the one with the apostrophe is two words squashed together, and the apostrophe marks the letters that went missing. Put the long version back into the sentence and read it: "the fox slipped into it is burrow" collapses immediately, so that gap wants the plain spelling. The plain spelling is a determiner, which means it has to own the next thing along - a coat, a name, a burrow. Watch out for the ones where a describing word gets in the way: "its enormous shadow" still owns the shadow, so the word straight after the gap is not always the test. That is also why "whose" and "who's" trip people up: "whose" owns something, "who's" is "who is". Run the stretch test out loud every single time and this stops being a guess.

What to say if they get stuck

The lens does the test for you. Stretch the word out: if the long version reads properly, the apostrophe belongs there.
An apostrophe is not a signpost for ownership. It is standing in for letters that have been taken out, which is why the lens can unpack it.
Look at the word straight after the gap. If it is a thing somebody could own, you need the plain spelling. If it is a doing word or a describing word, nothing can own it, and you need the stretched-out one.

Open Apostrophe Lens on its own page to share it

How distinguish contraction and possession differs from the skills beside it

The same exercise practises one other skill, and telling them apart is often the difficulty rather than the exercise itself. On this page the skill is: choose between a possessive form and a contraction in one sentence, and it stops where covers forms such as its and it is or your and you are. It excludes ordinary possessive apostrophe placement.

Mark possession
Place an apostrophe for singular or plural possession. Excludes contractions unless contrasted explicitly.

Related english skills

Classify a word in contextIdentify the grammatical function of one highlighted word in its sentence.
Complete a finite clauseComplete one clause with an explicit subject and a finite verb.
Distinguish a phrase and clauseDecide whether a group of words contains a clause and identify its role.
Maintain consistent tenseChoose a verb form that preserves the intended tense sequence.
Match subject and verbChoose a verb form that agrees with its true subject.
Order sentence elementsArrange supplied words into one grammatical sentence.
Select a clause connectorChoose a conjunction or connective matching the stated relationship.
Select a pronoun formChoose the pronoun form that fits its grammatical role.

All english 11+ skills

Questions parents ask about distinguish contraction and possession

Answered from what the skill map records about this skill, not from a template. Every answer here is on the page, and the same questions are the page's FAQ structured data.

: Choose between a possessive form and a contraction in one sentence. It is one of 41 named English skills in the 11+, in the grammar strand, and this page carries 1 interactive exercise that practises it.
: An apostrophe looks like a sign of ownership, but possessive pronouns such as its, your and their never take one. The wrong answers on this skill are built out of that, not out of random numbers, so it is worth naming out loud before your child meets it under time pressure.
: Point at the next move rather than explaining the whole rule. Expand the apostrophe form into the two words it stands for and read the whole sentence again. Only one of the two spellings will still make sense.
: The skill map draws the line here: Covers forms such as its and it is or your and you are. It excludes ordinary possessive apostrophe placement. A question past that line is testing a different named English skill, which is worth knowing before you spend a week practising the wrong one.
: The grammar strand holds 9 skills that are tested together, and the pages next to distinguish contraction and possession are distinguish a phrase and clause, maintain consistent tense and match subject and verb. Each has its own exercise and its own link, and none of them needs an account.
: Use Apostrophe Lens, embedded on this page. It is the exercise the skill map attaches to distinguish contraction and possession, it runs in the browser with no account to make, nothing is scored, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere. It also has its own link, so you can send it to a child without sending them anywhere else first.

Comprehension, vocabulary, grammar and punctuation are four different problems

A free diagnostic separates them, so practice goes where the gap actually is rather than on whichever one is easiest to set.

Start the free 11+ diagnostic