As a result of being someone who more-or-less educated myself after being classified as ‘remedial’ and abandoned by the education system of the time(that was decades ago), my education has occasional gaps, nay giant holes. One of thos holes is the placement of the inverted comma in it’s, or its’. Can the grammar Police provide guidance on this issue?

Assume the inverted comma is there to replace a missing letter, so it is becomes it’s and do not becomes don’t.

http://www.grammar-monster.com/easily_confused/its_its.htm

That makes sense!

The apostrophe replaces an absent letter . So it’s = it is . I will wait to be shot down but I’m not sure its’ exists because its is a possessive like his or hers. To be pedantic when you add an apostrophe ‘s’ to say ‘Brian’s bike ‘ the missing letters are derived from the archaic ‘Brian, his bike’

“Its” is (maybe the only?) exception to using the apostrophe to denote possession to differentiate it from “it’s” meaning “it is”.

There are only a few basic rules to be honest, but it can get dressed up in fancy pants terms.

This is your friend.

http://www.apostrophe.org.uk

Eats shoots and leaves by Lynne Truss, a lovely book which I found full of fun and learning.

Apprentice star Luisa Zissman defends apostrophe move

It’s, its- I remember by thinking of his, hers – you wouldn’t say “hi’s bike” would you.. so why “it’s wheel”.

It’s is short for “it is.”

Its means “belonging to it.” Normally you’d use an apostrophe for “belonging to,” but this is an exception to the rule.

Its’ is nonsensical I think; I can’t immediately come up with a situation you’d ever use it.

Further reading: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apostrophe

Its’ bikes were in pieces so they stayed at home.

The It twins had a real problem with maintenance but not with grammar.

more-or-less

Nice use of hypens. I approve of this style.

Its’ is a grammatical impossibility.

“It’s” is a contraction of “it is”; “its” is a possessive pronoun. If you think of it not as the normal possessive construction of “X’s”, where referring to something belong or pertaining to X, but as a completely independent word such as my/your/his/her/our/their which just happens to have the same three letters, then maybe it’s easier to remember.

Just to confuse things

Just to confuse things

yup! confused now

You need to look at the sites where you could easily find out the most critical problems of grammer. You can also download a software like “ginger”. This software do not even leave small mistakes like where you should place “a or an” and “the”.

If you used that software on your post then I’m not convinced. 😉

*Happy to be corrected*

Just to confuse things

What’s confusing about that? Their surname is Addams; could as easily say “The Smith Family” though that would perhaps make for a less interesting TV show.

The other thing of course is, if you really really struggle with apostrophes then the second best thing to do (after bloody learning how to use it properly) is just to leave it out.

Eg, a sentence like “Look at Johns new bikes” is far less aggravating than “Look at John’s new bike’s”.

There’s a tile shop in Blackburn that advertises “tiles you have dream’t of” and every time I drive past it I consider ram-raiding the front of the shop and slaughtering everyone inside.

What’s confusing about that? Their surname is Addams; could as easily say “The Smith Family” though that would perhaps make for a less interesting TV show.

Cousin Itt’s appearance in the show is the confusing bit, apparently.

And there’s this bleedin’ salon in Brizzle. Though to be fair, I kinda love it, it’s so ridiculous.

Let’s choose a French name…hmmm, how about “My Friends”? Yeah, cool, so what’s the French for that? “Mes Amis” you say? Ok, that would look great with an apostrophe between the e and the s. Lovely. Get the signmaker to sort that out. In chromed letters. Mirror finish so every-****-body who drives past can see my cool apostrophe. 😀

At least that wayward apostrophe looks like it could be easily smashed off with a hammer, should the salon owner wish to salvage their dignity.

Saw this and thought of some of you 🙂

It’s true. . .

The change that suprises me it the use of an apostrophe after a name ending in s eg, Charles, Chris, Jesus. I was taught at school (especially for RS exams) that the correct possessive was Jesus’ or Charles’ (hiatory exams) etc. But these days, Jesus’s, Charles’s or Chris’s seem equally common or even preferred.

People who highlight minor grammar points are amazing

Isn’t that apostrophe “Mes Amis” just a slightly misplaced acute accent from the “e”?

Cousin Itt’s appearance in the show is the confusing bit, apparently.

Doh! Of course.

The change that suprises me it the use of an apostrophe after a name ending in s eg, Charles, Chris, Jesus. I was taught at school (especially for RS exams) that the correct possessive was Jesus’ or Charles’ (hiatory exams) etc. But these days, Jesus’s, Charles’s or Chris’s seem equally common or even preferred.

Likewise, that’s what I was taught. There was an apostrophe test posted on here a few days ago, and the only one I got “wrong” was choosing Charles’ over Charles’s. Can’t say say as I’d lose any sleep over it, not having the extra s always felt wrong anyway.

Interestingly, the spellchecker in Firefox is currently telling me that those …s’s names are spelt incorrectly. (Mind you, it’s also underlining “spellchecker” and “Firefox”, so what does it know.)

“Isn’t that apostrophe “Mes Amis” just a slightly misplaced acute accent from the “e”?“

If it is then that’s entirely incorrect, too 🙂

“I was taught at school (especially for RS exams) that the correct possessive was Jesus’ or Charles’ (hiatory exams) etc. But these days, Jesus’s, Charles’s or Chris’s seem equally common or even preferred.“

I’m not sure I can remember exactly what I taught, but I write as I would naturally say it. Which means I use “with s” for singular possessors (“Jesus” and “Chris” seem prime examples of why, as they end with a soft “s”. You wouldn’t say “Ooh, I like Jesus hair today;” you’d say “Ooh, I like Jesus’s hair today”) and just the apostrophe for most plurals (if talking about the timesheets of a number of nurses, it would be odd to say “the nurses’s timesheets”). As always with language, there are exceptions 🙂