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Pedants' corner

It's and its

(132 Posts)
Christinefrance Thu 26-Jan-17 18:46:15

Wrongly placed apostrophes are really irritating especially on signs. 'English Breakfast's £4.99' for example.
I agree though predictive text is a problem, we don't always read through what we have written

Rinouchka Thu 26-Jan-17 18:44:08

It's grand that you have all shed light on it and its identity. smile Thank you for it and on behalf of it!

FarNorth Thu 26-Jan-17 18:40:00

My hudl always puts an apostrophe when I type its. It's easy not to notice it's done that, in its own sweet way.

A lot of people will just assume that spellcheck has got it right, if they notice at all.

thatbags Thu 26-Jan-17 18:23:30

A lot of people now use "it's" for for the possessive "its". I find this list of possessives useful:

his
hers
yours
theirs
its

Not an apostrophe in sight! wink

As opposed to:

he's
she's
it's
you're
they're

Jalima Thu 26-Jan-17 18:14:39

whose coat is that jacket?
who's been eating my porridge?

I wanted to say that earlier today smile

Ana Thu 26-Jan-17 18:14:37

(I do realise that it's can also be an abbreviated version of 'it has', but the possessive 'its' seems to cause the most confusion)

Ana Thu 26-Jan-17 17:55:18

It's is short for 'it is'.

Its means belonging to or associated with.

That's all I wanted to say...smile