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lprovenRe-reading my last post, I saw "it's lost its venue", a phrase that takes no effort or thought for me but throws many people. Is it me, or is the spread of "it's" as a possessive spreading? I'm seeing it more and more. It's in print, in newspapers, magazines, on signs, all over the Web even on sites on the Web written by pros. I had to remonstrate with DJ yesterday for using it incorrectly in a story on Heise.
"Its" as a possessive is not some bizarre aberration, some weird breaking of the rule of appending apostrophe-s on the end of a pronoun to indicate ownership. "Its" is not in the same set as John's or Fred's or the cat's.
No, actually, "its" has a different set of counterparts and the odd thing is that while they are not immune to the pernicious influence of the grocer's apostrophe, they seem to me to get so brutalised a lot less.
The kin of "its" are "his", "hers", "ours", "yours" and "theirs". They are all possessive pronouns.
Sure, yes, we do occasionally get assaulted with "her's" and "your's", but they're fairly rare. Yet "it's" is becoming ubiquitous; some days it seems that I see the incorrect form more than the correct one.
Why? Why are native English speakers unable to remember the difference? If someone can extend the principle of "his" to "hers" - and "hi's" is exceptionally rare - then why can't they extend it to poor old "its"?
Answers on a poctsacrd.
"Its" as a possessive is not some bizarre aberration, some weird breaking of the rule of appending apostrophe-s on the end of a pronoun to indicate ownership. "Its" is not in the same set as John's or Fred's or the cat's.
No, actually, "its" has a different set of counterparts and the odd thing is that while they are not immune to the pernicious influence of the grocer's apostrophe, they seem to me to get so brutalised a lot less.
The kin of "its" are "his", "hers", "ours", "yours" and "theirs". They are all possessive pronouns.
Sure, yes, we do occasionally get assaulted with "her's" and "your's", but they're fairly rare. Yet "it's" is becoming ubiquitous; some days it seems that I see the incorrect form more than the correct one.
Why? Why are native English speakers unable to remember the difference? If someone can extend the principle of "his" to "hers" - and "hi's" is exceptionally rare - then why can't they extend it to poor old "its"?
Answers on a poctsacrd.
