The Letter "S"

What does the letter s mean in English?

Ah, that is the problem!

It means many things.

Many students learn one thing about the letter s and then stop there.

That is a big mistake.

The letter s means many things, including:

1. Plural (more than one thing)

2. Possessive (something belongs to someone)

3. Contraction (two words pushed together into one shorter word)

4. Verb - third person singular (he - she - it)

Let's look at some examples:

1. Plural

The cats are on the couch.

The boys are running around outside on the grass.

2. Possessive (s with an apostrophe)

Marta's jacket is dark blue.

My mother's legs are slim.

3. Contraction (s with an apostrophe)

The cat's on the couch. (The cat is... )
The car's too old for such a long trip. (The car is... )

4. Verb

My cat Dice eats too much.
Sun Angel eats less than Dice.

Let's be brave and use s in many different ways.

My cat Dice is a little crazy. First of all, he eats too much. Secondly, he leaves his toys all over the floor. In general, the cats' toy mice can be found all over the house. We have two of them - cats, not mice. The love catnap, lying in the sun, and playing with toy mice. Dice likes to sleep in the special box my daughter made for him and Sun Angel likes to lie in the special basket my daughter made for her. Right now, Sun Angel's lying on my lap. Sun Angel's fur is silky soft and black as night. Dice's fur's black and white but the black is slowly becoming a kind of red. We may have to change his name soon. What's red and white and sweet and lazy? When I come up with an answer to that one, I'll have a Dice's new name.

Hey! Wait a minute!

What was that one: s' ?

What was that?

That was something horrible.

It was a plural possessive.

We put the apostrophe after the s when the plural noun is possessive.

What does that mean?

Do you have sisters?

Do they have dresses?

Are your sisters' dresses beautiful?

We could write sisters's dresses - but that would be too many s's!

And yes, I know! Another 's!

Sometimes, when something's plural, we have to add an apostrophe.

If we don't, it becomes very confusing.

ss - that just sounds like a snake, right?

So we write s's.

And then we understand we are talking about more than one s.

Let's just forget about that one for now,eh?

Keep your focus on the most important four -

plural

possessive

contraction

verb

and you'll do fine.

Super fine!