8 Shortcuts for Using Apostrophes and Times Tables

Grammar and math can fill any school kid with a feeling of defeat before even starting. Remember, though, that the rules for both, once learned, are difficult to forget so, once you’ve cracked it, the knowledge is with you for life.

You use an apostrophe for three different purposes in English.

Missing letters

You use an apostrophe when you contract two words. For example, ‘it is’ becomes ‘it’s’ and ‘does not’ turns into ‘doesn’t’. The apostrophe replaces certain letters and vowels.

Possessives

When you write about possession, you use an apostrophe. You don’t write ‘the cats whiskers’ but ‘the cat’s whiskers’. An exception is the pronoun ‘its’. You write ‘its whiskers’ not ‘it’s whiskers’. As you now know, ‘it’s’ is short for ‘it is’.

Plurals

Another exception to using the apostrophe to show possession is with plural nouns that already have an ‘s’ at the end. You place the apostrophe after the ‘s’. Here, you write ‘the boys’ bikes’ not ‘the boy’s bikes’.

Learning the times tables can take you hours but these 5 short cuts help you with the answers.

One or nothing

When you multiply any number by one, it equals itself. Multiply anything by zero and it will make zero.

Multiples of two

Multiply a number by two and you will get that number added to itself once. Two times two is four which is the same as two plus two.

The law of five

A number multiplied by five will always end in five or zero. If you multiply an even number by five the answer will be half that number with zero after it. For example, six times five equals 30. Half of six is three, add a zero and you have the answer. A handy tip when you multiply an odd number by five is, take one away from that number, halve it and add a five. Take five times nine. You take nine, take away one to get eight, halve it and add five for 45.

To the power of 10

To multiply any number by 10, simply add a zero: 10 times four equals 40.

Elevens

Single-digit numbers multiplied by 11 are simply that number repeated. Six times 11 is 66.

You have a good short cut for double digits. Separate the two digits, add them together and put the result in the middle. Take 11 times 26 for instance. Fill in the middle digit by adding two and six which makes eight. The result is 11 times 26 equals 286.

These tips may seem easy but you still have to exercise your brain which is what learning grammar and math is about. You get a good mental workout and results in one!