Quick Answer
The apostrophe is a punctuation mark used on the Digital SAT to indicate possession or create contractions. Typically appearing in the Reading and Writing section under Standard English Conventions, apostrophes frequently test the distinction between singular and plural possessives. Mastery of this concept is essential for approximately 2-4 questions per test.
An apostrophe is used to indicate ownership (possession) or to represent omitted letters in contractions. The standard rule requires adding -'s for singular nouns and -s' for plural nouns that already end in 's'.
Question: The (A) researchers' (B) findings suggested that the (C) moon's (D) surface was once covered in liquid. Solution: In this sentence, 'researchers' is plural possessive because multiple scientists share the findings, while 'moon's' is singular possessive because there is only one moon. The SAT tests your ability to choose 'moon's' over the plural 'moons' or the plural possessive 'moons''.
Confusing 'it's' and 'its': Students often think 'its' needs an apostrophe for possession, but 'it's' is actually the contraction for 'it is'.
Misplacing the plural possessive: Placing the apostrophe before the 's' for a plural noun (e.g., 'the dog's' instead of 'the dogs'') when referring to multiple owners.
Unnecessary apostrophes in simple plurals: Adding an apostrophe to a word just because it ends in 's', even when no possession or contraction is occurring.
Students targeting 750+ should know that the SAT frequently tests 'its' vs 'it's' alongside 'their' vs 'they're' to distract from the actual subject-verb agreement or possessive structure of the sentence. Always check if 'it is' can be substituted before choosing the apostrophe version.
An apostrophe on the Digital SAT is a punctuation mark used to indicate possession or to form contractions. In the Reading and Writing section, it is a core component of Standard English Conventions. Students must use it to show whether a noun owns an object or to differentiate between words that sound alike but have different grammatical functions, such as 'its' and 'it's'.
To use an apostrophe for possession, add -'s to a singular noun (e.g., the cat's toy) and just an apostrophe after the 's' for plural nouns ending in 's' (e.g., the cats' toys). For contractions, the apostrophe replaces missing letters, as in 'don't' for 'do not'. On the SAT, always verify if the noun is singular or plural before placing the mark.
The primary difference is that an apostrophe indicates ownership, while a plural noun without an apostrophe simply indicates quantity. For example, 'the birds' refers to more than one bird, while 'the bird's' refers to something belonging to one bird. The SAT often provides both as options to test your ability to determine if possession is necessary based on the sentence's context.
While the exact number varies by test form, you can typically expect to see approximately 2 to 4 questions that specifically focus on apostrophe usage. These are usually found in the Reading and Writing modules under the Standard English Conventions category. Mastery of this concept is also vital for related questions involving pronoun-antecedent agreement and possessive pronouns.
