It's / Its

[SeaJayPea]

May I, dare I, presume to correct some of my fellow contributors? I was brought up at a time when bad spelling or misuse of words brought about a sharp rap on the knuckles. This one was my primary school teacher's particular bete noire.

It's with an apostrophe means 'IT IS'. It does not indicate a possessive. It's the one exception (see what I did there?).

Its without the apostrophe does indicate the possessive 'the car finished up on its roof' is right.

Probably shouldn't identify worst offenders, so I won't. You know who you are....

Just sayin'

[dannyk13]

Probably the most common misuse of the apostrophe.

[B00]

"May I, dare I, presume to correct some of my fellow contributors?"

you may, though I can't see it going down to well, and quite rightly so.

As long as a post is legible I think we should let grammar and spelling slide a smidgen, most posts are easy enough to read without getting all snotty over incidentals.

[B00]

Damn..."too well" not "to well"

See? Easily done!

[maggiebee]

Agree, it's is a shortened form of it is. You would never say 'the car finished up on it is roof'. So yes, this is an exception to the rule.

[maggiebee]

Sorry I don't agree Boo - what is the point of learning English in school if we don't follow the rules. Would you say the same about maths? + and - do matter as do X and Y. We need to learn the basic rules.

[B00]

I agree Maggie, but we don't know whether the wrong usage on a forum such as this is down to spelling errors or simply not knowing or typing in a rush etc etc.

In the grand scheme of things, on a forum, is it important?

[Svejk]

its time you got a hobby.

[jim360]

The difference is that rules of English are often really more like guidelines. Jane Austen uses "your's" and "it's" in the possessive case. A hundred years from now the rules may change again. These things aren't absolute so people should be careful not to enforce them too vigorously.

[dannyk13]

Some years ago my local council decClose.ided not to include apostrophes on street signs, e.g St Wilfred's Close is now St Wilfreds Close

[vulcan42]

There you are B00, by using the wrong "to" you suggest you can't see it gong down to the well, water mistake.

[Ellipsis]

Less your your, more your you're.

[gness]

I'm pleased you choose not to identify the worst offenders, SJP.... a list of names wouldn't add much to the site.

Perhaps they haven't had the benefit of your good education and rapped knuckles.... and for you to name them on a public forum for something like that would be more than a little pompous.

[B00]

'zakly vulcan, grammatical mistakes happen to the best of us ;-)

[Svejk]

and lead to your every post being dissected? for years to come. ;-)

[kvalidir]

I think it's presumptuous to correct people when you don't know their standard of literacy. I recall someone who has posted on this very thread correcting my use of 'it's' ( which was a typo not an bone fide error) and in doing so *** up his own post grammatically- oh how I laughed ;/

[jim360]

I confess!

[kvalidir]

MWAH jim xxx

[jim360]

*grin*

Recently I've done a lot of posting on mobile AB but the keyboard is smaller and predictive text isn't always right so I probably make more errors.

[sp1814]

SeaJayPea

I genuinely only learned this earlier this year...and now that I know the rule, when I see the apostrophe misused, it stands out like a sore thumb.

I suspect many people assumed the same as me.

If I wrote:

The car landed on it's roof

Grammatically, it looks the same as:

We're going over to Karen's house

I shall now turn my attention to 'affect' and 'effect'.

[grasscarp]

I disagree SeaJayPea. How could it be right that the car finished up on its roof. I think if is a terrible result and never right.