Honestly I’ve done mostly forgot, and with the proliferation of AI technologies and all the typos AI has read from in the training models, I bet AI isn’t always right about this either.
I usually just don’t care anymore, whether the autocorrect puts the apostrophe in or not.
I hate that my phone turns “its” into “it’s” seemingly every single time. I often forget (I don’t post from my phone very often) and often only notice later and have to edit a post. It’s maddening.
Its - “ownership”
It’s - “being” (ie. IT IS)
There are plenty of grammar rules that are annoying to figure out. This isn’t one of them.
-
Him --> His (no apostrophe…drops the m)
-
Her --> Hers (no apostrophe)
-
It --> Its (no apostrophe)
-
He is --> He’s
-
She is --> She’s
-
It is --> It’s
You explained it extremely well!
Now go forth and train/fix autocorrect and artificial intelligence…
-
I do and it’s not even my native language. Even words like there, their, were, where, than and then, i have no issues with. One thing that does confuse me is with names, because that is used differently than my european country.
Ya dumbass, it’s = it is. Apostrophe means combo.
Apostrophe also means possession, so why the historical nitpicky difference?
Apostrophe is only ever possessive when used with a noun.
Example:
“There was a stick in the dog’s mouth” <- correct, dog is a noun
The word “its” is not a noun, Instead it serves the same function of possessive pronouns like “his” or “hers” and like those words it is never in this usage written with an apostrophe:
“The dog had a stick in his mouth” <–correct
“The dog had a stick in its mouth” <-- correct
“The dog had a stick in it’s mouth” <-- wrong
In short, the ONLY rule you need to remember is that if the word “its” is short for “it is” then it should have an apostrophe, otherwise it doesn’t.
That’s all. One single rule, zero exceptions.
Then why does it vs it’s break all the other rules of the apostrophe?
Where’s the exact exception?
Don’t demand nitpicky references in triplicate from people who assumed you just wanted to know and didn’t understand you were out to normalize failing.
Go find a teacher. It’s that person’s job to show you why. If you don’t believe that person, then it’s an oppositional disorder you’ll need information on.
While it may seem like “it” and “it’s” are different forms of the same word, in reality they are completely different words
he / his
her / hers
It / its
The above are all different forms of the same words.
“it’s” however is merely a shortening of “it is” and on that basis is a totally different word that (very misleadingly!) happens to sound exactly the same as “its”
EDIT:
Another way of looking at this :)
his & he’s (shortening of “he is”) are different words in the same way, but nobody makes the mistake of writing or saying “he’s car” instead of “his car” - it’s obviously wrong because the words sound different - ‘hiz’ and ‘heez’
The same is exactly and identically true of “its” and “it’s’” but those words sound the same, so the mistake comes easily.
I feel like that one isn’t that hard to remember because “its” stands out as a common exception to the rule for possessive singular nouns.
“It’s” is a contraction of “it is” while “its” is possessive.
“its” is comparable to “his” or “her”, not to e.g. “Dave’s”.
I think you meant hers, with an S, but I get your point. Does that mean “it” is/was meant to function as a pronoun?
Rhetorical question for the pronoun nazis, if I don’t know the sex/gender of a kitten, I’m gonna call it an it. If I don’t know the sex/gender of a human, I’m probably still gonna call it an it.
See post above, his, hers, and its are linguistically compatible, meaning that him, her, and it must be equally compatible.
I meant her. Mike and his guitar; Sarah and her violin; The computer and its speakers.
The obvious issue with ‘it’ as a pronoun for a person (or in my opinion a mammal or other sentient animal) is that it’s literally objectifying them: The main use of ‘it’ is for inanimate objects. Sometimes that’s used for effect, for example calling a pedophile an it. But unless you really dislike a person of nonspecific gender, just call them a them.
Them was originally intended as plural though. When did people decide to jank up the defined language? They/them/those are meant as plural.
And I might have made a subtle mistake earlier. He/she/it are pronouns, him/her/it as well.
His/hers/its are possessive pronouns. Can we try to stick to some sort of standard in the language, with clarity and without offense?
Singular ‘they’ is centuries old. Apparently even older than singular ‘you’. It’s only recently that people tried to make it a rule that it should only be used as a plural, but really it’s used in natural language as a singular all the time like I did. (Did you notice it in the middle of my previous comment, not just the end?)
You never used the word they, you used the word them multiple times though.
Care to compare and contrast the difference?
It’s the same word in a different grammatical situation.
It’s a pet-peeve of mine and I haven’t forgotten
Please don’t pet your peeves in public, Gary got arrested for that three years ago.