# Once and for all: the possessive is "its" AND "it's" = "it is"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-and-for-all-the-possessive-is-its-and-its-it-is/630337>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [August 3, 2012, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-and-for-all-the-possessive-is-its-and-its-it-is/630337 "2012-08-03T19:56:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 5

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**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\
**Post date:** [August 3, 2012, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-and-for-all-the-possessive-is-its-and-its-it-is/630337/5 "2012-08-03T21:00:08Z")

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> [@I swiftly herewith consign to the pit, the ignorant clowns who misconstrue "its"](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-swiftly-herewith-consign-to-the-pit-the-ignorant-clowns-who-misconstrue-its/627871/44):
>
> 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

And of course, the argument about other possessives having apostrophes falls apart when you look at the other possessive pronouns. No place to hang one on her or their, is there?

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