> "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.
If you can't substitute it for "it is" without it sounding weird, then you don't need the apostrophe. It was hard for me too when dealing with possessive words which usually have the apostrophe.
"Its, without an apostrophe, is the possessive of the pronoun it. It’s, with an apostrophe, is a contraction of it is or it has. If you’re not sure which spelling to use, try replacing it with it is or it has. If neither of those phrases works in its place, then its is the word you’re looking for."
"Its" is a possessive pronoun like his/her/their/our/whose. "It's" is a contraction of "it is", hence the apostrophe. Any time you could grammatically say his/her/their, you should use the version without the apostrophe. Any time you could say "it is", you should use the version with.
You are correct, in the case of "it's" the apostrophe doesn't indicate possession, but rather a contraction of 'it is'. I think it is a confusing edge case, which English has many of.
That's because "Tom's" is possessive in this case. The possessive form of "it" is "its" (no apostrophe). The way I remember it: if you can substitute "his" or "hers" for "its", then don't use an apostrophe.
I think OP was just being an ass, but whether the behavior is opposite really depends on your frame of reference. The lack of apostrophe is consistent with how you deal with possessive pronouns: his, her/hers, our/ours, etc. No possessive pronouns have apostrophes, with one exception. And the apostrophe is consistent with how other contractions work.
If you remember (and care) that its and it's are two separate words, then you should be able think your way through it. It's could legitimately be possessive or a contraction, but its can only be the possessive.
Anyway, I agree with you that it's tricky enough that we shouldn't be assholes about it.
It looks like the guy is a graduate from
Stanford's business school... and is the
co-founder of Pricenomics. What the heck.
I used to make that mistake - or what I assume was the mistake, which now seems to have been corrected.
Many guides to using apostrophes [1,2,3,4] say they can be used for contractions (the dog's outside) and to indicate possession (the dog's ball) - Why shouldn't something possessed by "it" use a possessive apostrophe?
Some people tried to correct my using of "it's" to indicate possession by explaining "Apostrophes are used for contractions like it is" which was unconvincing as obviously they can be used to indicate possession.
It wasn't until I got to college that someone gave me a satisfactory explanation: It/Its belongs to the same class of words as he/his, her/hers, your/yours, who/whose which do not follow normal apostrophe usage rules as the rules are descriptive, not prescriptive and nothing obliges the language and its users to be consistent.
I've often wondered why the apostrophe causes so much trouble, sometimes I think the mistake is made deliberately to seek attention (like the sign in the article). I say this because I was always way down low near the bottom of the list when they handed out the English marks at school. Thus, if anything I should be among those who keep putting it in the wrong place!
That said, I often mistype its and it's when I mean vice versa, and occasionally its' but I usually pick them up on a proofing of what I've written. Occasionally, I miss one that I've posted online and I'm quite mortified if I am unable to correct it. (It's important to use the apostrophe correctly because its misuse distracts readers from the text they're reading.)
I can even remember the day in primary school when we were taught how to use the apostrophe. The day was unusually pleasant and we had our lesson outside in the playground. The teacher taught us what I think has to be one of the simplest rules in English grammar and that's the use of the possessive apostrophe, which is to just ask the question who or what owns something, and that's where you place it.
A single boy owns a book, so it's the boy's book; multiple boys own a boat so it's the boys' boat. Pretty simple really.
Its and it's is a bit more confusing but if you've forgotten the rules all you do is to see if you can substitute it is.
For me, the most grating misuse of the apostrophe is when it is used to indicate plural such as I have many orange's. Some rules are a bit confusing and some have changed over time but they're few and far between. For example, there's an old building of Victorian vintage in a town near me that's called Kiss's Building, today we'd shorten that to Kiss' Building.
So what gives? Why do so many people find the apostrophe so difficult?
(Forgive my grammar nazism.) The possessive form of "it" is "its": "The dog wagged its tail". But for basically everything other than pronouns and plurals, the possessive form involves adding "apostrophe s". In recent years, many people have tried to apply this rule to "it". But the problem is that "it's" is understood to be a contraction of "it is" or "it has"; furthermore, "its" already exists as the standard possessive form.
One thing I say to people using "it's" is that by analogy, you also need to say: "He got he's skills. She missed she's ride. They have they's meeting."
Ah, you found the rule for when you don't use it. Contrary to many textbooks, teachers, and websites, the lack of an apostrophe in "its" is not an exception--you don't use the apostrophe for pronouns. "His". "Hers". "Yours". As apposed to "Jack's", "Julie's", "the user's".
You're writing your paragraph wrong - the last sentence was incomplete. Something like "No apostrophe is needed when using the possessive its." would have made the object of your sentence much clearer.
One of those other basic but trial-and-error rules of English: don't implicitly refer to something that's a long way away (in this case 4 phrases distant) from your sentence or someone will misunderstand you.
More: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/apostroph...
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