How to Punctuate Spelling: to improve spelling & writing

In part 1, you're going to learn the first ten uses of the capital letter and how they help people read and understand your writing. You'll see how using capital letters helps people know that you're talking about a "proper" person or thing in names, nicknames, addresses, titles, regions, compass points, and much more.

In this second lesson on capital letters, you'll learn when to use them for institution names, film and book tiles and when to not use them for "small words". We'll also look at brand names and when to use the generic name rather than the trademark name. 

Some words can have a capital letter or not depending on if you're referring to the proper name or not - learn all about these.

This is a quick introduction to the 4 types of abbreviations you're going to learn in this section. Don't worry if you forget the terms we're going to look at them in more detail in the individual lessons.

Learn how and why we shorten words such as fridge, quote, flu, rehab, vocab, and how we can make plurals, and use apostrophes for possessives and contractions with these.

These contraction abbreviations are made when we remove the letters in the middle of the word, but we say the word in full.

Learn how to spell these abbreviations that consist of the first letters of words  and whether we need to punctuate them or use capital letters - BBC, CNN/C.N.N., RAM, scuba...

Learn more common useful initialisms for work, business and transport: TBA, FYI, DOB, SUV, HGV, PTO...

This is a quick introduction to this apostrophe section and what you're going to learn in this section.

Learn all about where and why we add apostrophes in words to contract them. We'll look at words such as  I'm, don't, won't, they're you're, it's, he's, she's, we'll, she'll, I'll, she'd, and how missing an apostrophe can make another word. Then do the exercises in the Resources, and then the spelling test in the next video.

This is the Apostrophes for Contractions Spelling Test. Do you have a pen and paper ready? Play the video, write what you hear and then pause the player (when told to) and check your spelling letter by letter, and check the apostrophe.

In the Resources, there's a PDF of the spelling test with exercises.

Homophones are words that have the same sound but different meanings and different spellings (there/they’re/their, your/you’re, its/it’s). There are hundreds of these in English but we don't get confused when we hear them because they make sense in the context of the sentence. But writing them and knowing which is which can trip up the most accomplished writer. 
 
Learn how to use memory tricks to help with remembering which homophone to use, especially some common homophones that involve the apostrophe - there/they’re/their, your/you’re, its/it’s
 

After this, do the exercises in the Resources.  Then the there/they’re/their, your/you’re, its/it’s spelling tests in the next three videos.

This is the they're, there, their spelling test. Do you have a pen and paper ready? Play the video, write what you hear and then pause the player (when told to) and check your spelling letter by letter, and check the apostrophe.

In the Resources, there's a PDF of the spelling test with exercises.

This is the You're or Your Spelling Test. Do you have a pen and paper ready? Play the video, write what you hear and then pause the player (when told to) and check your spelling letter by letter, and check the apostrophe.

In the Resources, there's a PDF of the spelling test with exercises.

This is the it's or its spelling test. Do you have a pen and paper ready? Play the video, write what you hear and then pause the player (when told to) and check your spelling letter by letter, and check the apostrophe.

Download the it's and its Workbook in the Resources for more information on its vs it's.

Learn all about we're, were, where homophones and how to use them correctly, the pronunciation, and grammar.

Learn what the  'd' stands for in I'd, he'd and we'd and the pronunciation and grammar, and their homophone partners.

Learn the contracted forms, pronunciation and grammar of I'll, he'll, we'll, you'll and their homophone partners.

Learn how to use who's and whose correctly, and also discover how 'whose' is used in relative clauses and indirect questions.

Learn all about one of the hardest punctuation marks to use correctly - the apostrophe for possession. Discover how to use it for singular, plural, and joint owners. 

Learn all about using the apostrophe in time phrases, institution and company names, street names, and pronouns.

You're going to revise & consolidate the apostrophe lessons by looking at photos and pictures from the Internet, shops and websites to see if they've used them correctly or not. 

Learn all about one-word indefinite pronouns: someone, nobody, anybody, everyone, everything and how to use them with apostrophes for contractions and possession. These common pronouns are used to refer to people, places and things in a general way and are very useful to know and spell. 

Learn how to use until and till and the history behind these words, and why we don't need an apostrophe in 'til or 'till or to use these words.

You're going to learn all about hyphens, and how they "glue" words together to make new words (brother-in-law, ex-wife, good-looking, state-of-the-art, wheeler-dealer, short-sighted) They can also change the meaning of a sentence if placed incorrectly.
  
Hyphen usage is complicated because it’s forever changing, so we'll explore the evolution of hyphens, and explain why we sometimes have more than one way of spelling some words, for example. email or e-mail, southeast, south east or south-east. 

Learn how we can make compound adjectives with numbers to describe nouns and ages, e.g., a two-mile walk, a 24-hour delay, a 36-year-old policewoman, a ten-year-old dog.

Learn all about how we use compound adjectives with hyphens in words like old-fashioned, good-looking, well-known, with revision of numbers & compound adjectives.

We're looking at some key prefixes and hyphens. Remember prefixes are little words, or a letter, we put at the beginning of words to change the meaning. Sometimes we add hyphens with prefixes sometimes not. You'll learn, and revise, when to put hyphens with proper nouns, with ex- and self-, and with single letter prefixes (T-shirt, A-list...). 

We’re looking at some useful hyphenated words: no-no, no-nonsense, no-brainer, no-man's-land, head-to-head, head-on, itty-bitty, itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny and how to use them in sentences.

Revise punctuating numbers with hyphens and apostrophes, and learn about punctuating other numbers and ranges with commas, dots and dashes.

Learn all about ordinal numbers - first, second, third, fourth, and why we write them like this: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th... You'll also discover spelling rules, and using them in compound words.

Test your spellings of ordinals in words (first, second, etc.) and numbers (1st, 2nd, etc.).

Download the Punctuation Guide & Workbook for an advanced look at general punctuation and sentence structure.