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Colons, Hyphens, and Apostrophes Videos 9 videos

ACT English 3.1 Punctuation
1066 Views

ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 1. How should this sentence be changed so that it is grammatically correct?

ACT English 3.2 Punctuation
973 Views

ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 2. How should we properly hyphenate the words in this sentence?

ACT English 3.3 Punctuation
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ACT English Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 3. Where should we place the apostrophe to properly indicate possession?

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ACT English 3.12 Passage Drill 203 Views


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Description:

ACT English: Passage Drill Drill 3, Problem 12. Which form of "it" fits best in this sentence?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Here’s your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by low energy waterspouts.

00:07

Maybe they should try a more balanced diet.

00:10

Check out the following passage...

00:26

How would you correct this underlined segment from the passage, if at all?

00:30

It's?

00:31

And here are the potential answers...

00:36

The correct answer will be the possessive form of the pronoun “it,”

00:40

which is standing in for the noun “waterspout.”

00:43

We know we need the possessive form of “it” because its main function in the sentence

00:47

is to identify that the energy being lost belongs to the waterspout.

00:51

Most times, all we have to do to make a word possessive is add an “apostrophe s.”

00:57

However, we’d run into trouble if we did that for the word “it.”

01:01

See, “it’s” spelled with an “apostrophe s" is a contraction for “it is.”

01:07

If we’re ever unsure about which “its” to use, we just say the sentence out loud,

01:11

and ask ourselves: would “it is” work in this sentence?

01:14

Would we say, “the waterspout loses it is energy”? Would that work? No salami.

01:20

Therefore, we’re sure the underlined portion is incorrect, and we can cross out (A).

01:24

Side note: we bet if waterspouts ate more than frogs and fish,

01:27

they’d have more energy to face the day.

01:29

Having nixed choice (A), choice (C) is a cinch to eliminate as well.

01:33

We know that “it’s” with an “apostrophe s” stands for “it is,” and we know that

01:36

“it is” isn’t called for, right?

01:39

Thus, we can cut option (C) without breaking a sweat.

01:41

Which is probably more than we can say for these low energy waterspouts.

01:44

Choice (D) is a no-brainer.

01:46

“Its’” with an apostrophe after it doesn’t mean anything, so it has no place in the English language.

01:51

The correct answer is (B) because somewhere along the way somebody decided that “its”

01:56

with no apostrophe is the possessive form of the pronoun “it.”

01:59

We wonder if that grammarian’s ghost is sad that nobody remembers his or her name.

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