The death of the possessive its

I asked my son, when he was about 15, so some years ago, why he used an apostrophe when he wrote " it's bone". He was writing about a dog. He said, well, the bone belongs to the dog. It's his."

I then mentioned his, hers and its / he, she it.
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I asked him what he would say "it's" meant if it stood alone, and he answered "it is, or it has."

I get the feeling quite a few people don't get beyond this stage unless it is pointed out to them. Spell checkers and auto correct on keyboards often confuse the issue too.

The cat hurt its paw!

This isn’t the end of the world, If this is all you have to worry about you are must fortunate.

I also cringe when I see grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. Facebook posts are the worst. I know of someone who spells nana with an “r” on the end, as in nanar. Drives me up the wall!

most

I think it is a bit harsh to criticise people who have never been given formal grammar tuition. I went to what had previously been called a grammar school which had been hanged to a comprehensive a year or so before. We were never given formal grammar lessons, and my informal understanding of grammar has been learned solely from my love of reading. For those like myself, we may well have picked up incorrect use through reading literature which had incorrect use of words, spelling and grammar, so sometimes threads such as these (which have come up before), feel judgemental of those who are innocent victims of the education system and its shortcomings! Incidentally the autocorrect incorrectly changed my use of 'its' in the previous sentence.....

Changed not hanged. Interesting idea .

Gizmogranny, ‘Nanar’ may not be a spelling error at all. Here in my neck of the woods, it is quite common for grandmothers to be ‘nanar’ with the last two letters lengthened, as in ‘are’, rather than ‘nana’.

I’m another who attacks signage whenever I see the phrase ‘we are sorry for any inconvenience’.
Out comes the pen, ‘any’ is scrubbed out and THE inserted in big letters in its place. If there hadn’t been inconvenience the sign wouldn’t be there in the first place. Goes back to a letter writing course in the Inland Revenue in the 60s and it became standard practice to write ‘the’ not ‘any’ in all their correspondence

I must say that I too used to be troubled by these things just as all the rest of you rightfully are. Teachers used to write comments on my Canadian granddaughter's work with a red pen. Her mother used to correct the teachers' comments.
Now I'm of a great age it no longer troubles me.

We DO teach the apostrophe, I promise but there is an issue then with apostrophe’s appearing in all the word’s ending in s!!

GOD (now there’s an interesting acronym) this is a bit of a knife edge I agree. Is it best that people continue in ignorance of their grammar and spelling inadequacies or ?

I recently had a similar conversation with my SiL. A kind and intelligent woman, but one, who like many of the post-was generation, suffered an inadequate education.

She admitted she was confused by certain spellings and asked if she posted errors on her FB page. She was mortified when I said I had noticed several and asked me to explain the rules. It took only a few minutes before she said she ‘got it’. She has asked me to message her if I spot any other glaring mistakes.

Learning doesn’t end when we leave school, it ought to be a life-long process. I’m constantly coming across eg new words. My spell check has thrown up the fact that I leave the ‘c’ out of acknowledge.

If baggs’ post has make a few people think about, and look up, the correct usage of ‘it’s’ and ‘its’ then it has been valuable. Learning is never wasted IMO.

My current bugbear (along with the aforementioned apostrophe nightmare) is 'could of' and 'should of'........
I could of screamed everytime this appears in FB posts ?

Annaram1 - When he was in Year 1 my son had teacher who would "correct" his already correct spelling!
Two that spring to mind are a piece he had written about a meal out in a restaurant when he had enjoyed "huge prawns and mussels" where she crossed through mussels and replaced it with muscles and another story about a rally car where she crossed through every rally and replaced it with Raleigh!

That is shocking caocao but your son was obviously already such a proficient writer by the time he was in Y1 (age 5-6) that he was unlikely to suffer long term damage.

You can't really blame people for getting it wrong. I mean, why would "I broke John's leg" be ok and "I pulled it's wings off" not? What does the apostrophe in "John's" actually stand for? Nothing! There is no missing letter there. I'd change the grammar rules so there is never an apostrophe in the possessive and that apostrophes must only be used for missing letters. That might make it less confusing.

Sorry - should have been Year 2 ! He was a very prolific reader at a young age and would produce wonderful stories and pieces of written work. He had fabulous recall so I think he had retained the correct spelling of mussels from reading it on the menu.

One criterion or several criteria - likewise phenomenon and phenomena. Keeping a count of how many times not used properly on BBC News. Three so far this year.

Don't get me started on 12 pm and 12 am.

I do get out quite a lot actually.

'Reign in' is everywhere now. People don't think of the meaning of the words they use.

My primary school teacher taught us that the apostrophe stands for 'his'. ie John his ball - John's ball.

You can't apply this rule to 'it' because 'it' has no name.

Easy peasy. (1940's teachers knew their stuff)

NanKate I'm so glad I'm not the only one! I was once in a large DIY store where there was a sign against each tile on a large wall saying THESE TILES ARE SOLD SEPERATELY. Out came the pen to correct everyone I could reach so I could then browse the tiles at my ease.

It's tough being a spelling and grammar Nazi

Just a bit of aside but why say ‘texted’ surely it’s just text, not pronouncing the ‘ed’?

Thecapostrophe doesn't like sitting in the wrong places either.
Many people write
brother's
sister's
coat's
bag's etc
in non-possesive situations.

...and the pesky 'c' is there again Grrrr.
The c apostrophe.

Hildagard
If I type 'I text you', it implies that it is an action you are doing. It is the present tense.
Texted, is the past tense.