Lose the hounds!
When it’s its.
No wait…
It is what it is.
Why so angry, OP? It’s an arbitrary orthographic convention settled on capriciously years ago; we could just as well have been writing “it’s” for both situations, or have never written possessives with apostrophes in any case, or myriad other such things, except that we aren’t. It’s perfectly understandable that people slip up from time to time
You mean it’s what it’s.
And then there was the person I proofread for who regularly made words possessive with 'es.
No, I’m not kidding.
And loose and lose!! I don’t get that one at all, ever. The pronunciation is different, the meaning is different, ARGH.
Consider them lost.
My teeth were set on edge this morning by someone saying “walla” instead of voilà. Holy effing hell, that is just 100% ignorant. Stay away from the keyboard if you don’t know how to handle a non-English word!!
Because simply knowing the pronunciation and meaning of “lose” does not make it clear that it is to be spelt “lose” rather than “loose”… The letter-sequence “lose” looks analogous to the letter-sequences “rose”, “chose”, “hose”, “those”, “nose”… Those aren’t pronounced like “lose”. (What is pronounced like “lose”? Well, “choose”, for example…)
greenslime1951, I’m pretty sure you’re me (or I). Well, maybe I don’t go into a homicidal rage at minor mistakes, but I do find it sort of annoying that “it’s” is used for “its” more than “its” itself is … even on the SDMB where people should know better. I show my disappointment, not through threats and violence, but through my sig line.
Well, obviously you are in the wrong here. The apostrophe in this instance is not indicating a possessive, but rather a contraction. The sign is short for “THIS HEAR WATERMELON’S FIVE DOLLARS.” The here/hear mixup is what you should be getting worked up about.
Agreed. It should be “Bokay’s.”
That depends. 
I always spell and pronounce it “viola.” Just to see who gets it.
.
The 90s, you mean.
They it’sy bitsy spider went “up” the water spout
“Down” came the rane and warshed the spider out.
Out came the son & dried up all the reign
Sew the it’sy bitsy spider went up the spout “again”.
That would only be true if the sign bore an arrow pointing at a specific watermelon.
Parenthetically, “Specific Watermelon” would be a great name for a rock band.
English–or any other language for that matter–is full of rules and constructions that do seem arbitrary. So what? Is that any excuse for not following those rules? We drive on the right-hand side of the road, or the left, and the choice would seem to be arbitrary, but once the choice is made, we must conform or chaos results.
The pronunciations of “cough” and “tough,” for instance, are arbitrarily different, but common usage has dictated what they should be. In many cases, the rules do serve to draw distinctions. In terms of spelling, both “arbitrary” convention and the languages from which words were derived dictated the forms currently in use.
My point is that we have to do things consistently for the sake of understanding. The apostrophe may be unnecessary, strictly speaking, but as it stands, it conveys meaning. To misuse the apostrophe is to distort meaning. I think it’s understandable, perhaps, but not forgivable given that compulsory and free education is given to all citizens, and you’re supposed to learn what an apostrophe is for by second grade.
Edit: And my anger is that people who can’t read and write (because they never bothered to learn how) reproduce and vote. Thus, morons help to determine my destiny.
You are wearing clothes
You dust your furniture with cloths
If you are wearing cloths, I feel sorry for your wardrobe.
God, I can’t believe I let him get away with that.
When you drive on the wrong side of the road, people get injured and even killed. Thus, anger at people flouting driving conventions is quite understandable.
What exactly is the chaos which apostrophe bumbling has caused? I’m not saying you aren’t correct that such bumblers have messed up their adherence to convention; I’m asking why you’re so angry about it.
So what if apostrophe bumblers (who can read and write pretty damn well, compared to people who, you know, can’t read and write) reproduce and vote? In what way is knowledge of apostrophe convention vital to reproduction and voting?
I guarantee you there are things I care about which you never bothered to learn and would consider quite piffling. I’m not angry at you about it. I certainly don’t mind if you reproduce without getting around to patching it up. Your value as a human being is not predicated on it.
Of course, you are being hyperbolic. But I don’t know why linguistic peeves should so frequently attract this particular style of violent, disgusted hyperbole.
I have to admit I have a hard time ‘breath / breathe’. I can never remember which is pronounced which way. I know there’s at least one other verb / noun pair that I always confuse, but I can’t think of it now.
That is a pretty clever sig line.