this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2024
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None of us here have invented the rules of the English language (or, for that matter, any other language). But once these rules are given, let’s try to use them as best as we can.
I refuse to believe that distinguishing between "its" and "it's" is complicated (you just need to know that "it's" is a contraction of "it is"). Rather, I believe that most people simply don't want to take their 0.01 seconds to think of the correct case: "I'll be understood just the same."
Or in other words: I'm sure that if you gave a prize of, say, $100 to a group of people for correctly placing "its/it's" in a hundred sentences, more than 90% would do it correctly in all of them.
From my point of view, the number of times "its/it's" is written incorrectly does not measure how difficult the English language is but rather the number of people who bother to try to write it correctly.
Nah its/it's actually trips me up a lot because 'its' is an exception to the possessive apostrophe rule. What really gets me is seeing someone use a possessive apostrophe on a plural s. That is inexcusable.
But what about “its” that does show possession? Do you use an apostrophe there?
Example: a dog and its(?) tail.
No, I'm fairly certain you would not use an apostrophe there. That's what trips me up though because, at least in my mind, 'it' takes the place of the possessive noun in that clause and therefore it should have an apostrophe. but god forbid the spelling remain consistent between the two 🙄
That’s what I was thinking too; that ‘it’ is clearly referencing the dog and is therefore possessive. English is so weird lol
If its and it's are used "incorrectly" long enough, it's possible the conjunction will lose the ' through use. Descriptive vs prescriptive etc.
Also, in response to the person you are responding too, there are advantages for our writing system not being entirely phonetic, namely that different dialects of English that may not be easily interintelligible via spoken word are interintelligible via writing. Like a weaker form of the same benefit of the Chinese writing system.
That's the opposite of what an apostrophe is normally used for, to show possession. So it's not actually a well thought out use of an apostrophe, as it's completely unclear if it's a contraction or possessive. As I said, this is a badly constructed writing system.
Nobody does invent the rules for English. There are several versions used in different countries, which is generally based on how people use it in everyday life. Eventually the whole it's/its thing will disappear as the language evolves. At least I hope that will happen if idiot language pedants like you fuck off.
Edit: It's been pointed out to me that apostrophes used for contractions are more common than apostrophes used for possession. I still don't think it changes the argument that we shouldn't be using the same symbol for both, or that a language's writing system should be simple and follow the pronunciation.
As someone who has learned bits of multiple languages I'll push back on this: contractions are an apostrophes main purpose in both English and every other language, it's the possessive use that's weird. (I should be clear that I'm counting languages that use an apostrophe to denote a gutteral sound in the middle of a word as being basically a contraction, as that's generally what they get kinda pronounced as in English)
I bet if you Google it then it's gonna turn out the possessive is an ancient ass contraction
Either way something is wrong with the writing system here is my point.
Idiot language pedant? I mean, the difference between it's/its is just a matter of basic grammar. We're not talking here about some obscure feature of the English language. And to be honest, the "fuck off" part was kind of off-key, if you ask me.
It doesn't matter how common it is. You've missed the point completely. The fact it's so common yet people constantly get it mixed up is just more evidence that it's a bad part of the writing system.