a punctuation mark generally used in order 1) to show the omission of one or more letters in a contraction, and 2) to show ownership or possession
direct quotation
expressing someone's spoken or written thoughts in precisely, making the use of quotation marks necessary (e.g., The girl said, "I'm tired and I want to go home.")
indirect quotation
expressing someone's spoken or written thoughts in our own words, making the use of quotation marks unnecessary (e.g., The girl said that she was tired and wanted to go home.)
possessives
word forms that show ownership, often (but not always) through use of an apostrophe (e.g., Rita's dog)
possessive pronouns
pronouns that express ownership (e.g., his, hers, its, ours, theirs, and whose)
