People Who Understand the Difference Between “It’s” and “Its”
People Who Understand the Difference Between “It’s” and “Its”
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Don’t forget the whole your, you’re, to, two, too thing.
They’re, their, there is the one that kills me.
Loose and lose is the worst for me.
That and which, effect and affect.
I hate it when people type “should of” or “would of” or “could of”. That drives me batty.
Hahaha I also see people all the time who put “que” instead of “queue”. That cracks me up for some reason but still pisses me off.
In the words of Manuel, “Que?”
Nice!
“On those trays”
“Que?”
“On…Those…Trays.”
“No senor, Uno, Dos, Tres”
Oh, come now. That’s “¿Qué?” This is a grammar Nazi thread, so get it right.
The one that really bugs me is when people use “breath” when they mean “breathe”.
Cloth and clothe (or cloths and clothes), who and whom. . .
Not to mention all those that have already been posted.
There are others, but I’m driving myself nuts trying to remember them.
Then and than is what gets me the most. I hate it when someone says, “I like cake better then ice cream!”
If you add a comma, it makes sense. I like cake better, then ice cream!
Ok, not really but I like cake better than ice cream. Mmmmm cake
I would go for the ice cream. Cake is a lie.
Portal WIN
Oh yes. ‘Then’ and ‘than’ are NOT interchangeable! They don’t even sound the same! Why is this so hard to grasp?
And the growing trend of people who can’t tell the difference between ‘can’ and ‘can’t’.
Uh… What? How are they mixing them up?
I find it amazing how many people type “quite” for “quiet”.
“Effect” and “affect” were the two I most had to correct as copy editor fo my high school’s newspaper, closely followed by “they’re,” “there,” and “their.”
*For my high school’s newspaper, rather.
My biggest problems are with commas a semi-colons. It’s almost as if nobody REALLY knows how to use them.
How? They are all pronounced differently, but then again when teachers tell you about them they fk up and say them all the same way.
Really? I tend to pronounce “their” and “there” nearly identically, but “they’re” I pronounce as though it were written “they ‘re”.
they are all pronounced the same way. what crazy dialect do you speak?
p_m: please identify your planet.
You cannot imagine the cultural shock I suffered when I noticed that my knowledge of basic English grammar exceeded that of most native speakers.
Same here!
I was working on a farm in Wales with a bunch of multinationals. The Italian asked the Englishman “Why is it that when the German, the Canadian and the Turk speak English I can understand them, but I DON’T UNDERSTAND YOU???”
This is seconded. Really, native speakers, it’s simple: The apostrophe means something has been left out. If you can say the exact same thing with two words, then you use the apostrophized version. Thus, “it’s” can be replaced by “it is”, whereas “its” can’t (Which is in turn short for “can not”). “They’re” can be replaced by “they are”, whereas “their” and “there” can’t.
As for “would of”, “could of”, etc., it is supposed to be “have”, not “of”, and it can actually even be contracted to “could’ve”, “would’ve”, etc.
[/doing my majors in grammar]
Oh, that makes perfect sense. So then what is the long form of “Somebody Else’s”?
My point is that it’s the possessive ’s that messes up the native speakers of english, the reason being that when using many proper noun possessives, the most natural thing when using ‘its’ is to apostraphize the ’s’ as well because that is the perfectly grammatical way that we make things possessive in english.
This is the reason why we should all just stop saying “it’s” and instead go back to “’tis”. No ambiguity.
If we’re gonna get all high and mighty about this, I hate it when I see you ‘merkins on T.V. “Aksing a question” instead of simply “Asking a question.”
I mean honestly, how difficult is the word “Ask” that you have to pronounce it as “Aks” instead?
Funny. The LPD mentions this as a discouraged pronunciation, but under RP, not AE. No mention of it under the latter. Now, granted, the LPD is a bit too conservative for its own good, but that still implies that “aks” is or has been more common in the UK than the US.
iNpossibly confusing?
I know, I’m trying to find out if it’s intentional or not, lol. If not, that’d be pretty funny.
Ahh . . . I see. Intentional incorrect use of “its” twice, combined with deliberate misspelling of “impossible.” Nice.
So inpossible was intentional? I’m slow… I still don’t see why.
Probably to poke fun at other common errors in writing. I see “reinbursed” or “reinburst” quite often.
Thats unpossible!
Before anyone says something about the missing apostrophe, I did that on purpose to go with the “unpossible.”
Apparently there are a number of us commenting who know how to write and are peeved by the multitude of common mistakes. May I add to the list, the overuse of apostrophes? When I see something written by someone who uses an apostrophe for nearly every word ending in S, I want to throttle them.
I’m Norwegian. We don’t even have the apostrophe in our language except as quote marks and a few very specific nouns. But people still use it.
You meant to say “…there IS a number of us…”, I’m sure.
Yeah, I can be quite the grammar Nazi. I do think about this for more than five seconds.
Good, good. The thing is, if you start thinking about it for five seconds and do that every time, eventually you can think about it for zero seconds and still get it right. Effort!
Five seconds is not that long of a time to be thinking about it!
Precisely!
Thank you, graph maker, for this.
SPELLING FAIL.
Seriously, if you can’t spell “impossible” right you’re screwed when it comes to conjugating verbs anyway.
“It” isn’t a verb.
i think that spelling it wrong was intentional… a joke… yuk yuk yuk
That was purposeful…
Verbs get conjugal visits?
Geez. What a fail for the little graph maker.
Me Fail English? That’s Unpossible!
Only comment worth reading. Pop culture win.
Misuse of apostrophes should be punishable by law.
how about just the misuse of possessives?
or the difference between then and than
Oh, yeah! This one drives me even crazier than its/it’s, they’re/their/there, and you’re/your. “Then” signifies a certain order. “Than” signifies a comparison.
Oh, and definitely/definately. One of them isn’t a real word. It’s called spell check, people! Most web browsers have that function!
That doesn’t apply to everyone though. My browser’s spell checker wouldn’t help with spelling definitely as its language setting isn’t set to English.
my spell check doesn´t know what in the world it´s doing… it once told me that i should replace “more dead” with “deader”, and yet google tells me that it´s right, but it just sounds stupid… i don´t trust it.
Can I ask what you were writing about that was more dead? Or deader? Whatever I’m just curious as to the topic.
Ditto. I was unaware that death came in various degrees.
Haven’t you heard? You can be either mostly dead or all dead.
“More dead” is a more-unique state of death than “somwhat dead,” no?
What about people who say “a whole nother” as in “That’s a whole nother can of worms altogether”?
Now, now, “whole nother” was a counterculture thing, at least it was big w the hippies when I was one. That wasn’t a mistake, it was on purpose, and it was thought of as kind of cute and soulfull. I am really surprised no one has brought up my pet peeve, the misuse of “lie” and “lay”. Yes, it is confusing, in defense of those who have a hard time w it.
I can understand counter-culture, but it’s not a real word! Even d’oh is a real word.
[LINK]
Would you accept “a whole ‘nother”, then?
I shall have to say that this is a win. I see what you did there regarding the red slice. Genius!
nomnomnomnomnom
these people drive me crazy!
i’m not english and not american and i DO understand the difference
Me too! I’m Australian
if english isn´t your native language, you are actually more likely to understand the rules of english because you are taught the rules formally and repeatedly. while english-speaking children are given some rules, it eventually becomes automatically and we don´t even think about them. the same thing happens with me and spanish. i can explain the rules of spanish grammar much better than a native speaker.
There is only one “rule” about the English language: there are no rules!
No, that’s pronunciation. In grammar, there are rules.
With wouldst if yours agree this scrambling the I perhaps doesn’t like grammatical.
I like-uh the way you think.
Ugh! I can’t stand that! It’s *so* annoying.
Three kinds of people in the world. 1 – those who make grammatical errors in Comments because that’s their level of knowledge. 2 – people who can write better English but can’t be bothered to proof-read a Comment 50 times, because they have a LIFE. 3 – people who try to bolster their tiny wee senses of self-esteem by trashing every little grammar error they notice. Let’s drive the 3s crazy: identify the grammatical or spelling error in this entry. Errors in style don’t count, it varies from one country to another.
You have a comma splice in the last sentence.
And re: your second assertion: a) believe it or not, not all of us have to proofread “50 times” in order to write proper English. b) If you’re commenting on LOLboards, it’s fairly obvious you don’t have a life anyway.
And should it not be “grammatical” error?
(Don’t mind me, I am just joining the “Has No Life” club here.)
BWAHAHAHAHAHA excellent catch there Admin.
Suppose there were more than one error. Poor list punctuation and improper capitalisation spring to mind, for example. In addition to the “grammatical” thing caught earlier.
In addition to the comma splice:
1. “Comment” and “Comments” should not be capitalized.
2. “proof-read” is not hyphenated. It’s one word. Proofread.
3. There should be a comma between “tiny” and “wee,” as they are a list of adjectives.
3. Your pronoun and antecedent don’t agree in the last sentence. Errors = plural. It = singular.
4. Your first sentence is a fragment; it has no verb.
5. The colon in your second to last sentence should be a semicolon if the seocnd part of the sentence was meant as a command.
You are definitely a #1 if you thought that there was only one error in this entry. Nice work.
And in case anyone was wondering, I’m definitely a #2.
Duh, I should have put my reply here…. But anyway, you are very good! Any recommendations to try and brush up on my grammar skills, Ie: a website or book?
Thanks!
Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English, Second Edition by Patricia O’Conner
Review from Amazon:
The second edition of O’Connor’s delightful guide to good English offers a new chapter on e-mail etiquette that ought to make many people-even grammar snobs-feel a tad guilty: “E-mail,” she writes, “is no excuse for lousy English.” Let your audience determine your attention to tone and mechanics; use salutations and signatures; resist the urge to indiscriminately forward mail; and leave those emoticons and abbreviations at home, she says. Commonsense stuff-but every once in a while, it’s nice to be reminded. The rest of the volume is similar to the first: witty, economical and fun to read, it explains the secrets to grammar in refreshingly jargon-free sentences illustrated by numerous examples (“‘I assure you,’ said the grieving widow, ‘I ensured he was insured to the hilt’”). When is “majority” plural, and when singular? How does saying “Trixie loves spaghetti more than I?” mean something completely different than “Trixie loves spaghetti more than me?” While the volume is certainly handy to someone struggling with grammar basics-there are few style guides so breezy-the “Verbal Abuse” section will appeal to language experts and purists, especially those who decry the use of partner as a verb, or grow with a direct object (as in “grow the business”). As for those who like to use dialogue as a verb, “Don’t talk to them,” O’Connor says.
Clarity,
I thought that the pronoun was in error in the last sentence, but on re-reading, I think it’s clear that Dean means that *style* varies from country to country – so “it” is correct. I also disagree about the punctuation of the penultimate sentence – I think the colon is absolutely appropriate for a command, and a semi-colon less so. I tend to think the other items you mentioned are stylistic ones which are debatable (well, more debatable – the whole thing’s ripe for frenzied, geekish debate).
Dean, you are probably laughing your head off at these exchanges, but frankly, I find discussing grammar and punctuation enjoyable. Because, yes, I am an utter geek.
In reference to your second 3: I think it applies to the word “style” in which case it is correct. Though I totally agree with all your other discoveries of error.
And I don’t have to proofread a post 50 times to get it right.
So I guess I’m a 3.
subtle win. nice
Roses, try “I lose all my loose change.”
Ohhh, if it’s supposed to be possessive, it’s just i-t-s, but if it’s supposed to be a contraction, then it’s i-t-apostrophe-s. Scalawag.
If English didn’t have the ” ’s ” possessive suffix, we wouldn’t get ourselves into these messes. And now the confusion seems to be creeping into “his” and “hers”, which really shouldn’t be as confusing, but which are now sometimes seen spelled with apostrophes.
Actually, I think we wouldn’t be in this mess if people tried to pay attention to these things.
I was at Knott’s Berry Farm a few months ago and one of the permanent store signs said “Her’s”…I nearly peed me-self in anger.
I once had to sit through a lecture at university because 90% of the bloody people couldn’t use apostrophes properly. I wasn’t a happy bunny at that.
My concern would be more because the people around me are bloody, not that I had to listen to an extraneous lecture on apostrophes. How unsanitary.
(Yes I know it is an English slur I just had to)
how does one use apostrophes incorrectly? i don´t think i have ever seen that… oh no… i´m one of them, aren´t i?
*BEEP!* *BEEP!* Grammar police! You used the verb form “are” in conjunction with the pronoun “I”, when the corresponding verb form is “am”. The correct form is “am I not”, not “aren’t I”.
Honestly, don’t worry too much. The first rule I learned in linguistics class was that language is a form of communication, and as such your language is acceptable as long as it conveys what you intend to communicate in such a form as to be easy to understand.
Ah, you’re bringin’ me down, man.
We need to know there is a reason to our grammar madness.
ur alls so dum
Wow and that “sentence” just makes you look like a GENIUS, doesn’t it.
What a cute little bugger you are. Now scamper off and play with the rest of the five year olds..
The mispelling of “its” and “impossible” in the red section are deliberate, making fun of people who use them incorrectly. Good graph
m-i-s-s-p-e-l-l-i-n-g.
or was that intentional, too?
This is funny.
My pet peeve was whenever anyone said, “Can you borrow me some money?” Seriously..that doesn’t make any sense at all and I have no idea where the confusion between lend/loan and borrow. People said it at my high school all the time.
I’ve never had question asked of me before, and I’ve only heard someone use “borrow” in that manner a couple of times in my life. If, however, someone does ask me that question in the future, I’d likely respond with, “Sure, who you want me to borrow it from.”
And then I’d laugh at them over the fact that my intentional bad grammar seemed perfectly acceptable to them, yet at the same time I would be lamenting the death of intelligence.
That’s almost as bad as people who say “itch” when they mean “scratch”. Grrr!
inpossibly?
FAIL!
ohi get it. sorry. noob here
So this graph would fall under the “red” section then.
a-l-r-i-g-h-t is an abomination.
and a-l-o-t is *not* a word.
“alot” Is a word, it just doesn’t mean “a lot”
No, “alot” is not a word. Perhaps “allot” is the word you’re trying to refer to.
beth is alot smart.
Actually, it is a word, the proper form requires a capital A, and it lies in Madhya Pradesh, India.
somebody else is alot smart.
Yes, that drives me crazy too. My ex-boss uses alot in his work a lot and it reinforced the need to find another job!
I see a lot of people spelling “ridiculous” as “rediculous”
It irks me.
i suppose it is diculous a second time?
How about defurment? I wonder if it means what is done to small doga at the grooming store?
Where’s its complexity?
Here’s my irk, military and all:
Singular: Sergeant Major
Plural: Sergeants Major
Possessive: Sergeant Major’s
Plural Possessive: Sergeants Major’s
Not only does it just sound weird, but it’s a bit confusing.
Wow, that’s awesome.
It’s simple, ‘Major’ is modifying ‘Sergeant’, not the other way around. Hence why you pluralize ‘Sergeant’. As far as possessive goes, that’s because it’s always the entire noun that gets the possessive, not just one.
Similarly, I don’t like when people say “My brother-in-laws came over for dinner,” when it should be “Brothers-in-law.” My grandmother used to yell at me for misplacing the “me” in “so-and-so and me” or “so-and-so and I.”
aint it easy? if u can’t split it into ‘it is’, it’s its!
Wow Clarity, you are really good. Seriously. I will be the first to admit I have trouble with the “rules” of grammar. Can anyone recommend a good book for me? I would really love to brush up and try to do better.
Theresa – applause to you for wanting to learn. It’s been said that English is the easiest language to learn enough to get by in, and the hardest to learn to speak perfectly. I’ve taught ESL for a long time. I strongly feel the best advice to students is to just read as much English as possible, fiction or non-fiction, either is good. If you try to learn, and apply, the rules, you’ll go nuts, there are too many exceptions. If you read and listen to good English, it’ll soak in. Read a national paper, such as the New York Times (the local ones, sad to say, often have errors). A U.K. weekly, The Economist, is always written in excellent English. Try reading in paragraphs, not articles. The gold standard for English grammar is Fowler’s Modern English Usage, the revised 2004 edition. But it makes people’s heads ache and, often, their eyes bleed.
Thanks Delta for the great advice. I am already a native English speaker, but I truly do want to learn the “rules” of grammar more efficiently. If anyone can recommend a good book that can help with this, I would be appreciative.
Many times bad grammar is a result of quick typing, no proof-reading, rather than lack of knowledge.
Why get so upset? Life is too short.
Because most of us type quickly without proofreading, and still get it right. It ain’t that hard.
Rog
I can easily understand the difference and use it the right way.
I’d say most of the times bad grammar starts with laziness then it becomes bad habit then it becomes the norm, sadly.
What irritates me is when people type “I should of” or “I’m doing that ANYMORE”.
This, from someone whose English is not the native language.
How about “lead” when it should be “led.” I see “lead” so frequently when the writer obviously needed “led” that I’ve started to wonder if the word “led” was removed from the language and no one told me. Has “lead” become an acceptable spelling for “led” (and no one told me)?
I think that one is a result of the Spell-Checker Revolution, and people just aren’t paying attention.
My pet peeves are:
1. Incorrect conjugation of the word “media”. Even the media get it wrong constantly saying “the media is” rather than “the media are”. The word “media” is plural, damn it! Television is a medium, radio is a medium, newspapers are a medium, media is the plural of medium.
2. The phrase “a myriad of . . . “. You wouldn’t say “a many of” would you?
3. Don’t even get me started on the abuses of “fewer than” and “less than” by highly paid media professionals who should know better.
…what’s wrong with the second one?
That’s sad, actually.
I’m sure these have all been mentioned already, but here goes:
Man, it bugs me when otherwise intelligent people spell ‘definitely’ with an ‘a’ — ‘definAtely’. (Huh?)
Or say ’supposebly’ instead of ’supposedly’.
And, there’s the whole ‘your’, ‘you’re’, and ‘yore’. thing. (I have seen something somewhere written as ‘days of your’. wth? lol)
But …
the thing that annoys me most these days is when someone will post a picture of themselves with others and caption it ‘___, ___, and I’. This may be a minor thingEy, but it is rampant all over the Web and DRIVES ME BATTY!!!
*such a geek*
lol
http://www.apostropheabuse.com/
I think you guys might enjoy this.
Do you know what bugs me about its and it’s? When I was young, I was told that if you are creating the possessive form (as in “this belongs to him”) then you use an apostrophe. So you would say “Edmund’s cat” or “Lucy’s poster”.
So why is it when you say “that belongs to it” you have to write “its colour” or “its capital”?
It makes no sense whatsoever!!!!
It doesn’t MAKE SENSE, per se, but there is a pattern. Actual nouns (like Edmund or Lucy) get apostrophes. Pronouns (his, hers, whose, its) don’t.
And of course with contractions you always put an apostrophe where the missing letters used to be, which is why we abbreviate “it is” to “it’s.”
(grin) Don’t get me wrong – I do know which is which, and when you should use the apostrophe and when you shouldn’t. But think of it from the point of view of a kid who is just learning it……
And yet people still say English is an easy language to learn!
Ever tried learning the word order of Norwegian? It’s a mess of old leftover forms, newly-made forms and generally used forms with specific exceptions. Let me use this example, leaving out punctuation and other stuff for the sake of making a point:
“jeg går hjem” – “I’m going home”
“går jeg hjem” – “Am I going home?”
“hjem går jeg” – “I’m going home, as opposed to going…”
“går hjem jeg” – colloquial form – “Me, I’m going home”
“jeg hjem går” – acceptable poetic form – “I go home”
“hjem jeg går” – acceptable poetic form, with somewhat more mystical connotations than the former – “To my home I’m going”
And that is a simple three-word sentence. To add insult to injury, Norwegian does not decline nouns according to case, nor conjugate verbs according to person or number. I have never to date met a single non-native speaker who mastered Norwegian word order fully.
And, on another topic, people who use “myself” or “I” when it should be “me”.
For example “Give the report to Lucy or myself”. It’s insane, crazy and totally wrong, and basically means the person is trying to sound posh and cultured, when they just come off sounding like a moron.
you spelled impossibly wrong
which is kind of funny
I find that very very few people *even of those who get it right* actually know why “its” doesn’t have an apostrophe – and it’s usually people putting an apostrophe in “its” that is the issue rather than people skipping an apostrophe in “it’s”. Most people seem to say “because there’s no letter missing” as if the asker is an idiot – ignoring the fact that “’s” ( apostrophe s ) is also used for ownership.
Oh my effing eff! It’s really actually very simple! I hate it when people confuse “its” and “it’s,” because they make that mistake more than any other grammar mistake ever, and it’s so annoying! We should start shooting people until they get it right!
It’s rather sad that people don’t know such simple grammar. Those who are English-first, that is. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen things ruined by such simple and stupid mistakes.
The same rule applies to the “Your-you’re” and “To-too-two” business.
Just sad. It’s so easy to learn how to apply the rule(s)…it takes about 3 seconds. Yet so many simply can’t be bothered to learn it. What a lazy world we live in.
I am a Grammar Nazi.
WIN!!
That’s all I’m going to say.
I hate when someone will be like “Next week is Mike and I’s anniversary…” and it’s just like WTF is the matter with you. I seriously cannot believe how many morons I grew up with speak like that. You can’t pluralize the letter I. Would you say “That’s I’s cookie”??
Another thing that is OFTEN overlooked is the use of “him and I” vs. “he and I.”
You wouldn’t say “Him went to the store” so why the hell would you say “Him and I went to the store”?? It’s HE dammit. HE!!
Haha sorry. Even people I consider grammatically savvy mess this one up and it peeves me so.
Truly, the your/you’re thing is my biggest peeve because it’s one of the easiest things to understand, yet is the most common error I see. Unfathomable that I was in the same English class with some of those people…
Regarding “Mike and I’s anniversary…”
While that is incorrect, it’s not incorrect because someone is trying to pluralize “I”. That is creating the incorrect first person singular possessive. Just as it would be correct to say “Mike’s anniversary…”.
I think this occurs because people have had the “I” versus “me” part of pronoun use drilled into their heads and so there is a reluctance for people to ever say “person x and me”. Consequently, “person x and I” is overused and thus the weird possessive “I’s” is born.
Irregardless [hahaha...sorry], subjects and objects are a lot of fun.
I hate when people use (’s) to make something plural. Didn’t anyone listen in the 2nd grade? Also, I hate when people use quotation marks to emphasize something.
(AND of course the its, it’s, your, you’re, their, there, they’re, affect & effect, then & than…)
apparently the maker of this graph doesn’t undertand the uses of it’s or its either…
What really gets me among english speakers is the abuse of plural/singular distinctions. Every time I hear “this data is…” I want to stab someone. This also frequently occurs among: ‘criteria/criterion’, ‘media/medium’ (thanks Sherri for that one). There are others I just can’t think of them right now.
In addition to all the many peeves already listed here, I would like to add my seething hatred for the walkie-talkie commercials that have made more than half the country think that it is perfectly acceptable to ask, “Where are you at?” or “Where you at?”
RAAAAAGE.
easy
It’s = it is
its = its
I recently took delivery of a very expensive sign for the front of my store advertising prices for various beers. Putting it up in sub-zero temperatures took its toll on my mood, but the clincher came when I stepped back to admire my handiwork.
There, in foot-high red block letters were these actual words:
BUDWEISER 12 ounce CAN’S $.99
F-A-I-L!
The $.99 makes me happy. It’s when I see the cent symbol then .99 that I wonder if I’d be one of a few grammar Nazis who’d come in asking for beer for 1/99th of a cent.
I actually saw a shirt at American Eagle for sale that used the word “your” instead of “you’re.” I don’t remember exactly what the slogan was but I clearly remember knowing it was not correct. Go look for it.
YOU SPELLED IMPOSSIBLE WRONG… FAIL
i admit its hard to tell the diffrence, but in reality (it’s) is contraction and (its) is possesion
“Further” and “farther.” Ninety-nine percent of Americans evidently don’t know “farther” is a word–and that they are not synonymous. And the ubiquitous superfluous preposition (and, yes, most, but not all linguists including my father agree IT’S not a grammatical crime to begin a sentence with a conjunction, nor end it with a preposition, for that matter.) If I hear “where’s it AT” one more time I’m moving to England. BTW, I heard at 20-minute debate on BBC radio about the demise of the apostrophe, and ITS pros and cons, in which professorial types tip-toed around the fact that IT’S Americans who are bastardizing the language.