Possessive Apostrophes Vs Adjectival Hyphens | ADVANCED PUNCTUATION TRICKS FOR C1/C2

After watching this video you will never make a mistake with possessive apostrophes again. We'll also show you how to punctuate using adjectival hyphens. We'll look at common mistakes too. Stay tuned for some punctuation tricks to avoid mistakes that they should have taught you at school but probably didn't Don't miss this punctuation masterclass.

00:00 Apostrophe or plural?
00:50 An overview of apostrophe rules
04:31 Possessives after the noun
06:15 Omitting the word HOME after a possessive
06:60 The adjectival hyphen
08:27 Groucho Marx joke
09:24 Common mistakes

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[LetThemTalkTV]

One Thing I didn't mention in the video which is causing confusion: In English time references take the possessive apostrophe: "Yesterday's lesson, " "today's breakfast", "this week's video" etc.
Another thing I should have mentioned in the video: "One week's holiday" is correct and so is "a one-week holiday" but "one week holiday" is not you need the "a". My explanation was incomplete and a bit confusing. Sorry for that.

[ilghiz]

“The child is 4 years old” and “a 4-year-old child” are syntactically different things. You can’t convert one to the other.
The first one is a statement, the second one is not.
“4-year-old” is an adjective, “4 years old” is not.
I think most students will get confused with these conversions.

[wqma]

Can you please talk about noun+noun combinations? The first noun is usually singular, but I see a lot of exemptions such as sales figure, etc.

[twothreebravo]

As a native English speaker, I never understood why the style guides disagree on it, if the possessive S is pronounced it gets the 's when written (Paris's, Jesus's, etc)

[mfst]

My English is not bad, but this is the first time I get to know that you say "one week'S holiday" or "one hour'S delay". I need to etch it my mind now.

[flaviaulianalima]

You wouldn't make a video about the differences between using the apostrophe S and the preposition "of" to describe possession, would you? For instance, which is correct: history of England, England's history or English history?

[Tony]

Great tips I learned a lot.
I also liked your explanation of "storey" (or Story in American English) as a floor when we see the building from outside. I never thought of it that way.
I read your pinned comment, but I still don't see why "One week's holiday" needs an apostrophe.

[nikovald]

It was really a wonderful lesson, great explanations. I clarified many doubts. Thanks and regards.

[zahidaparveen]

This is the best English teacher on youtube, especially for advanced level students.

[frfancha]

Super useful lesson. Just one point: the trick "Put it in the singular and listen whether with/without s it sounds right" doens't really work for non native speakers... Well at least not for all of them. I need to use syntaxic analysis to know if I need a possessive (and therefore an apostrophe) or not.

[syncmeandroid]

OMG I didn't even know that _one week's holiday_, _one hour's delay_, _my student's spelling_ would need an apostrophe. Thanks Gideon.

[RADMIRZhdanov]

Damn, what a charisma, what a dedication. We want more lessons like that! Thanks teacher.

[ronenr]

Thanks, Gideon!
But isn’t it “three-week holiday”?

[rolandoe.diazolivom.d.]

Interesting: In American English, the spelling "story" is used to denote the floor of a building, when seen from the outside. In British English, the spelling is: "storey".

Thank you, Gideon, for this excellent presentation.

[KamalKumar-bwsv]

First time in my life i saw the correct use of "-"....🙏

[stephanestephane]

Notice that you say a three-week holiday but three weeks' holiday without the article. That's how the Saxon genitive works.
We French are usually better at grammar than the Saxons so I can brag a bit hahaha

[MaximTendu]

thanks for the nice video, which I've just watched on my laptop in my pajamas. How my laptop got into my pajamas I'll never know.

[urbanwarrior]

never understood why the possessive 'its' doesn't have an apostrophe - very illogical - if the 'it' was replaced by the actual name of the subject it would have one.

[henkdjuzwart]

Probably for a native speaker a 'one week holiday' sounds wrong. But for some non-native speakers it doesn't sound wrong at all.

[misskitty]

When do we write out the numbers (two instead of 2) and when do we stop?
I would also be tempted to hyphenate the noun, e.g. ten-minute-lesson. Would that be incorrect? It just seems to make more sense to me that way.