Sometimes, my brain skips a cog and I think to myself, "Self," I sez, "d'ya think that maybe, just MAYbe, there's a 'mole' somewhere planting this stuff JUST to make the leftists look bad?"
Then the gears of my brain re-engage and I realize they really ARE that stupid.
Sorry to correct you, but the possessive form of the word "its" is ( its' ). The rule is: In plural possessive terms, place the apostrophe after the "s." This will indicate to the reader that more than one person or thing owns the thing possessed. Otherwise, "it" is singular, "it's" is a contracted form of "it is" and "its'" works with ("its' own .......). That is how it was taught until journalists and editors who had grammar problems got around to revising their editorial guidelines. As the US military did in the late 70's, when they started issuing technical manuals in comic book format.
"A village" is singular. It would also be correct, and redundant, to write "A single village". "Its" is clearly the correct word and spelling.
If it had been discussing many villages, it could be written as "Each of the (many) villages is missing its' idiot." Notice that even in this case, the word is not "it's", it's "its'".
No matter how you slice it, the bumper sticker is wrong, including grammatically and logically.
I looked up "Possessives" in Concise English Handbook, Third Edition, by Hans P. Guth, copyright 1961, 1965, and 1970. In it, I found the following two items:
---
A few contractions are easily confused with words of different spelling and different meaning. It's, meaning "it is," differs from its, meaning "of it" or "belonging to it".
---
The apostrophe is not used in the possessive forms of personal pronouns. No apostrophe appears in his, hers, its, ours, yours, or theirs. It does appear, however, in the possessive forms of such indefinite pronouns as one (one's friends), everyone (to everyone's surprise), someone (at someone's suggestion also, at someone else's house).
Down here in Austin, Texas, we use his'ns & her'ns, but there is a push on to make toilets unisex.
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JS-Kit/Echo comments for article at http://smallestminority.blogspot.com/2006/04/it-would-be-more-effective-if-they.html (13 comments)
Tentative mapping of comments to original article, corrections solicited.
BAHAHAHAHA typical of the left wing--hell if they could read and write they would have jobs and not be trying to loot the rest of us.
Sometimes, my brain skips a cog and I think to myself, "Self," I sez, "d'ya think that maybe, just MAYbe, there's a 'mole' somewhere planting this stuff JUST to make the leftists look bad?"
Then the gears of my brain re-engage and I realize they really ARE that stupid.
P.
Pseudo-Intellectualism of the Left, exposed again.
This is one of the common punctuation mistakes that truly drives me up a wall.
I would suggest that anyone who sees a displayer of this sticker asks him "Oh, are you from Texas?"
The bumper sticker I want which mentions that state would read "Mess Without Texas".
Sorry to correct you, but the possessive form of the word "its" is ( its' ). The rule is: In plural possessive terms, place the apostrophe after the "s." This will indicate to the reader that more than one person or thing owns the thing possessed. Otherwise, "it" is singular, "it's" is a contracted form of "it is" and "its'" works with ("its' own .......). That is how it was taught until journalists and editors who had grammar problems got around to revising their editorial guidelines. As the US military did in the late 70's, when they started issuing technical manuals in comic book format.
Sorry, Carl, but its' is grammatically incorrect, and to my knowledge always has been.
We don't use his' or hers' either.
Carl,
"A village" is singular. It would also be correct, and redundant, to write "A single village". "Its" is clearly the correct word and spelling.
If it had been discussing many villages, it could be written as "Each of the (many) villages is missing its' idiot." Notice that even in this case, the word is not "it's", it's "its'".
No matter how you slice it, the bumper sticker is wrong, including grammatically and logically.
Strange, I only see those things on cars with Minnesota plates.
Maybe they are refering to themselves?
Let's beat the horse some more, shall we?
I looked up "Possessives" in Concise English Handbook, Third Edition, by Hans P. Guth, copyright 1961, 1965, and 1970. In it, I found the following two items:
---
A few contractions are easily confused with words of different spelling and different meaning. It's, meaning "it is," differs from its, meaning "of it" or "belonging to it".
---
The apostrophe is not used in the possessive forms of personal pronouns. No apostrophe appears in his, hers, its, ours, yours, or theirs. It does appear, however, in the possessive forms of such indefinite pronouns as one (one's friends), everyone (to everyone's surprise), someone (at someone's suggestion also, at someone else's house).
---
OK, it's back on the shelf now and I feel fine.
Down here in Austin, Texas, we use his'ns & her'ns, but there is a push on to make toilets unisex.
Note: All avatars and any images or other media embedded in comments were hosted on the JS-Kit website and have been lost; references to haloscan comments have been partially automatically remapped, but accuracy is not guaranteed and corrections are solicited.
If you notice any problems with this page or wish to have your home page link updated, please contact John Hardin <jhardin@impsec.org>