It's. Its. ITS! IT'S!

The BBQ Pit
1

It’s.

This is a contraction of “it is”.

Its.

This is a possessive, meaning “belonging to it”.

What is so terribly brain-taxing about this simple, little word? What makes it so terribly difficult for 99% of the population of North America to use correctly? Perhaps I exaggerate. Perhaps it is only 99% of people who write things that appear on the Internet who find the distinction between it’s and **its **a challenge.

I can overlook the misuse of this small word when used by people who do not possess a degree in English. Wait–I can’t. But I can summon kindness in my heart for people for whom English is not a first language who misuse the dreaded it’s/its. However, people who write for phlegmsucking newspapers? People who make their living writing? People who represent the very character and reputation of their employer with their words? Shame. Shame!

I am honestly shocked by the number of “news” stories I have read online, stories that are from newspapers, magazines, television (ah…) news programmes where it’s/its are used interchangeably, and seemingly at random.

Also: the hot chocolate packets that are provided to us at work, those delicious hot chocolate packets I was enjoying so much come these dark and cold, rainy and windy days of drear November… Well, I read the ingredients list on one this morning. Now I can no longer stomach putting all that incomprehensible conglomeration of factory-produced artificiality into my stomach. Please. I do not need to consume the abomination known as “non-dairy creamer” and “corn syrup” as the primary ingredients in my hitherto enjoyed mid-morning office treat.

I hate driving home on the highway in the blackness and pouring rain.

I weigh three more pounds than I did at the start of the week.

I do not want to take every single file we have, create new files, labels and categories, and refile every single piece of paper in these new files and categories.

Christmas is coming.

My husband’s car is in the shop.

I’m ashamed to be a Canadian every time I hear the words “airport” and “Taser”.

I need to bathe the dog.

It’s raining. Still.

My hair is thin, limp and lacks any particular style.

Apparently I snore.

I left my work notebook in a gorgeous house, and now I have to wait until someone does a showing or whatever, and plead with them to bring me my notebook, since she will be there…

I ate McDonald’s for lunch.

Gah.

I don’t like November very much.

2

Every single other appearance of a possessive uses an apostrophe. It is only this instance where it does not.

Punctuation usually makes sense, but in this case it does not, and very easy to typo or just not understand.

3

You’re fighting a losing battle.

And it’s not just North America. The same error is rife here too. I’ve just found a couple of examples in a job application letter from a very highly paid actuary.

4

English is full of those little idiosyncracies. I think somewhere in the next twenty-five years or so the apostrophe will go the way of the semicolon; disused, misunderstood and generally frowned upon because few can use it correctly.

5

What about “his” and “hers” ?

“Its” follows the same pattern.

6

Chill out !!! :smiley:

7

I’m a grammar and spelling freak. Not a scholar or anything, but it’s definitely one of my things. Yet, I can’t get behind the pitting for this. It IS confusing- I have to think about it every time, and I don’t remember being taught this in school. I must have been because it’s so basic, but it certainly wasn’t ingrained, by any means.

You should see my hairdresser if you’re ever in Tucson- she’s a genius with fine hair.

I love November, it’s my favorite month.

8

I’m not the only person humming the Flying Circus theme after reading that thread title, am I?

9

Well, no.

Pronouns don’t use apostrophes in the possessive (except one). Hers, yours, theirs, ours, whose. Its fits right in.

ETA Throws OED at KayElCee

10

Sometime I’d like to open a place called Apostrophe’s.

I have a picture I’d show around of a hand-written sign on a neighbor’s fence. “Beware of dog’s”, it said. About half the people who looked at it would say something like, “OK, so?” The other half would say something like “Beware of dog’s what?” I tended to like the second group better.

11

Hell no!

12

This just reminds me- I recently got an email in response to a personal ad. The guy starts out his message with, “I’m intelligent, but I wouldn’t say highly”, and then proceeds to put apostrophes with every single plural in his email. Like, “I have 3 daughter’s and 2 granddaughter’s. I like to watch movie’s, take long walk’s by the beach, go out to restaurant’s.” I ignored him, and then a few days later he sent me another email in the same style, wondering if I’d got his email… and I felt bad. So I answered it. But I know I could never date him, and if he writes me back I’ll have to tell him. I won’t tell him why, but maybe I should- that’s how you learn, right?

13

This is a Pitting relative to errors in language use, right? So* of course* there has to be an error, solecism, or just plain generalized fuckup somewhere in the OP.

No wonder you gained weight! I hope you didn’t burn yourself chewing up the deepfrier, or have any problem gnawing on the Golden Arches.

Otherwise, m’y compliments on you’r pitting of something that makes all of ou’r usage nerves stand on end. Anyone who misuses its/it’s should have hi’s or he’r license to write revoked.

14

Damn you people who got to the pronoun explanation before me.

And…yes…it can be confusing…maybe…but the way I see it, there’s two ways spelling can go. Either the writer takes extra time to think about what they’re writing so that it’s immediately clear to the audience, or the writer doesn’t worry about it so much and the audience must take extra time to decipher what’s been written. Courtesy would seem to suggest that the former is preferable, but the latter is far more common these days.

15

I knew there would be something–and I am ashamed.

However, I’d had three drinks by the time I got arrived at pitting my pathetic lunch. I didn’t simply press “post”, however. I checked, first. Blearily, I peered at the screen, searching for the error I knew had to be lurking.

It escaped me completely.

Why, oh, why did it have to involve an APOSTROPHE? I’ve just poured my fourth drink, and I’m eating broccoli.

16

One of my best friends was in a band called Apostrophe S. They later became Legend. They once opened for The Tubes. (yeah, big deal)

17

Uhm, no. The ones with apostrophe are genitives; “its” is a pronoun. Different animal entirely.

18

See Bob the Angry Flower for proper guidance:
http://www.angryflower.com/aposter.html

19

It’s been printed out, in colour, and pinned to the bulletin board above my desk for few years now. :slight_smile:

20

I used to do this correct but after all these threads I just doubt myself.

It’s, its, it’s
Monty Python’s Flying Circus.