Sorry for the tangential drift but it's ubiquitous now. I guess those boring grammar pedants should finally give up. The totally meaningless and incorrect apostrophe in it's (unless it indicates an abbreviation) has gone viral. You can even find it in headlines in newspapers. Odd really that many of us go to the trouble of adding a pointless character intent as we are on writing correct English. I think we should keep on trying though.
The "it's vs its" fight's dilation is overdue: I knew that it was going to become a grammar mistake spreading throughout, reaching almost every pseudo-professional writer...
I guessed that anybody criticizing the trend towards the unnecessary apostrophe would be: either considered a grammar nazi; or their own writing being extraordinarily examined for mistakes (as a punishment for their criticism).
As a non-native speaker, my language credentials may be slim, but I can't really stand the -quite widespread- extra apostrophe when it's a possessive "its". The reversal, though, doesnt bother me that much. I guess that it's about character conservation.
Thanks for the correction. You know, I was once taught, quite poorly, that the apostrophe is used for possession, and when I'm not mindful about it, my brain makes this jump that when referring to something that "belongs" to whatever "it" refers to, that it therefore possesses this thing and therefore should have an apostrophe.
If I think about writing, I write its, but when I'm thinking what I want to write and my fingers just type it, it is like a layer of execution intercepts that thought and correct it.
I guess that's just the brain and one of its features, it's nuts.
Getting back to the subject, this is one of the biggest issues, idiots who hold our data and yet don't add salts to their encryption because salt is bad for you.
You have written “it’s” instead of “its” on the last two occurrences of the word. It should be without the apostrophe, as it’s indicating possession. I used to get this wrong all the time too.
Clarity or confusion? George Bernard Shaw back in 1900 promoted the same idea and his writing was full of its (the abbreviation) and Ives and cant. It still hasn't happened for good reason and most people follow the rules.
With some expressions, those who don't, against the grain, force their readers to double check the parsing. The cost may be only a millisecond or two but it is nevertheless a tiny distraction incurred because someone can't be bothered to follow a simple rule taught in primary school. In the glorious future envisaged in the comment, everyone will ignore the apostrophe so all of us will have to do a bit of extra scanning. What's superior about that?
Is it really that difficult to remember that the apostrophe in it's (for instance), is always without exception used as an abbreviation for 'it is' or 'it has', not an indication of possession and thus your's is wrong.
> "It's" is a contraction for "it is". No apostrophe is needed.
No. "Its" is a possessive, which puts it in the same class as words like "his" and "hers". If it were a contraction for "it is" then you'd definitely need the apostrophe.
You're assuming its vs it's is always due to lack of knowledge. Sometimes it's just a brainfart.
I noticed today that I had sent an email that used the wrong form of "to" ("too" instead). This isn't because I don't know English. It's just that what came out of my fingers was wrong. Mea culpa, it happens.
The way English uses the apostrophe is especially tedious and offers no value: it'd be no real shame if the distinction between "its" and "it's" disappeared over time, just like English lost gendered nouns and words like thy and thine.
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