Its vs. It's

1. Matt L.
   February 19th, 2008 at 11:04 pm

   My favorite way of remembering comes straight from Strong Bad himself:

   Oh, if it's supposed to be a possessive, then it's just I-T-S! But if it's supposed to be a contraction, then it's I-T-apostrophe-S! Scalawag!

2. JM
   February 19th, 2008 at 11:29 pm

   Uhh... I think it's supposed to be use not us. Moron.

3. VonSkippy
   February 19th, 2008 at 11:46 pm

   Spelling/Grammar Nazi's - for them, it's not a hobby, it's a pathological obsession (or perhaps they were dropped on their noggins when they were small).

4. Rob
   February 19th, 2008 at 11:59 pm

   Now if only someone will create a cartoon detailing the differences between "loose" and "lose."

5. Aaron H.
   February 20th, 2008 at 12:20 am

   Years of schooling and the rote memorization of it's/its would just never stick. Then, finally, a few years ago someone made it so clear and simple I don't ever have to worry about it.

   All possessive pronouns simply end in s. They are all exactly the same: his, hers, its.

   Everything else gets an apostrophe.

   Seriously, why don't they teach it this way in school?

6. Tempscire
   February 20th, 2008 at 12:47 am

   I don't get what's so hard about "it's" = "it is." Really, is it that difficult to pause for half a second to consider the unshortened form? I can occasionally understand pluralizing some things with an apostrophe (to say you "made all As" this semester looks slightly off), but arrrgh, it's not hard!

   If Grammar Nazis are really such pedants about stupid, pointless things... well, then, more people should be able to correctly use those pointless things. How stupid do you have to be to not be able to achieve such a simplistic construct?

7. Thespian24601
   February 20th, 2008 at 12:59 am

   It's funny and clever, but come on, making up a contraction like y'gotta? Really?

8. Alex
   February 20th, 2008 at 5:57 am

   The confusion stems from possessive apostrophe: mother's, girl's, boy's ...

9. Fran
   February 20th, 2008 at 8:35 am

   YEAH!!! My pet peeve in cartoon form. LOVE it.

   Now if they'll just come up with a way to teach people the difference between to and too. Another of my pet peeves.

10. kuanes
    February 20th, 2008 at 9:08 am

    you know what else drives me insane?

    your VS. you're.

    people who write "Your very smart..." make me want to do unspeakable things to their appendages...

11. Orjans Morjan
    February 20th, 2008 at 12:20 pm

    People who write 'to' instead of 'too' or 'your' instead of 'you're' on the internet are usually second speakers, or third. So yea, cut them some slack.

    Not that I can myselv. I just height it when people make these errors.

12. Tempscire
    February 20th, 2008 at 1:15 pm

    Orjans Morjan, I think you're giving native English speakers too much credit. Really. Waaaaaaaaay too much credit.

    Also, it's been my experience that non-native speakers (who can converse easily, admittedly) have a better grasp of grammar than the natives.

13. Rocky
    February 20th, 2008 at 1:47 pm

    Another pet peeve: "alot" is TWO WORDS. A LOT!

14. L
    February 20th, 2008 at 2:28 pm

    That flower's expression perfectly sums up my feelings when I see someone butcher the English language.

    If I see someone write something like "I definately need to loose some weight" one more time, I think I'm going to "loose" it. Unfortunately, most people don't even realize how stupid they look... because their friends can't spell or tell the difference between homophones either.

15. heather
    February 20th, 2008 at 3:20 pm

    Can't tell you how many times I've been tempted to flame people who can't seem to apply their complicated third grade grammar skills to distinguish the difference between it's and its. Don't even get me started on your and you're. Good goiven it irritates me.

16. jen
    February 20th, 2008 at 5:00 pm

    I am loving the grammatical slant on some of these posts today!

    My peeve: LOTS.
    Lots are things you park cars in.
    The term is A LOT.
    This has bugged me forever. A few years ago I saw a billboard for a car dealer and it simply said, "We have LOTS of cars!" I about died from laughter. Come on! That's funny!

17. jen
    February 20th, 2008 at 5:16 pm

    http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k83/JennyCrackCorn/greatest-animated -gif.gif

18. teradome
    February 20th, 2008 at 5:59 pm

    "Alright."

    *GACK*

19. Justin Lynes
    February 20th, 2008 at 10:46 pm

    It's been nice to read this. But no one has mentioned "it has."

20. Noelegy
    February 21st, 2008 at 4:55 pm

    My mom was an English teacher for many years, and the rule of thumb she always said was that if you can't use the uncontracted words ("you are," "it is," "they are," etc.) in the place of the contraction ("you're," "it's," or "they're"), don't use the contraction. Simple as that.

    I love Bob the Angry Flower, by the way.

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