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Joined: Jul 2005
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Logwood Offline OP
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Even the English teaching institution I used to work in had "it's" instead of "its" in one of its banners, that in addition to all the "it's" instead of "its" I see in official documents or company advertising messages makes me wonder if anyone else has noticed this trend to make this common mistake even at professional fields?

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Carpal Tunnel
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Apostrophes can be pretty annoying.'It's the pits'.

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it is one i make way to often.. (i've been privately chastised!)

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Enough of us keep making the same mistake it'll stop being a mistake.

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and then will come your's, and her's, and their's, and our's and.. his'??

-joe (mi'ne eyes hurt) friday

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mistake

What do people expect, when it breaks one of the few "rules" that English orthography has. First off, its as the possessive form of the third person singular personal pronoun is an innovation. It used to be his, but its won out sometime in the later 16th century. Second off, most of the other possessive forms of pronouns are irregular, except for one's. Why? About the only rationalization I can come up with, it is to purposely trip people up and have them making mistakes. Third off, I really don't think the apostrophe adds much to the mix. English must be one of a set of a few languages which hasn't had a spelling reform, ever. Fourth off, why are so-called abbreviations which are actually contractions, use the apostrophe? D'r Jekyll and M'r Hyde. Now that I'd like to see.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Pooh-Bah
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Log: Oh indeed I have, while I concur wholeheartedly with tsu's comment


dalehileman
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>tsu's comment

is that the contraction or the possessive? should it be 'tsu''s'??

-joe (asking the tough ones) friday

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>most "professional" common mistake

I'd put my money on there, their, and they're.

There always being misused.

(He he he).

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journeyman
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Another misuse of apostrophes which is one of my pet peeves is the use of a name on a mailbox or a doormat, which reads "The Smith's" (insert name) rather than "The Smiths".... unless the family is bragging about their ownership of the domicile (and even then, assuming that there is more than one Smith living in the residence, it should read "The Smiths'")

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