The possessive form of it is its. No apostrophe.
It’s = It is, or some other contraction, such as it has. Always. Garner should back me up on this. I don’t own Garner, but I have Fowler, who’s probably just as uppity, who says, “Just a reminder that its is the possessive form of it (the cat licked its paws) and that it’s is a shortened form of it is (It’s raining again) or it has (It’s come).”
Wow, I quoted Fowler almost verbatim.
So, if I’m reading your blog, and you say, “The summer has it’s happy moments,” please be aware my brain reads it AND it means, “The summer has it is happy moments.” If you intended that, that’s one thing, but if you’re referring to happy moments that belong to summer, it’s its. It is, I promise. Or, if you’re unsure, just say, “The summer has happy moments.” I always write my way around a rule if I don’t know it.
It’s a weird rule; its tendency to trip people up is historical. It’s annoying me, particularly today, for some reason. Its dark magic has wrested all tolerance from my soul.
I’ll stop before it gets more obnoxious.
September 26, 2008 at 9:56 am
I hate spelling and grammer errors myself. Especially when people misuse their/there and your/you’re. I had Mrs. Bowles for English and to this day I say, sometimes outloud, “It’s not AT anywhere.”
But I have to say “its” confuses me sometimes. I think I would have said the cat licked it’s paw, because the paw belong to the cat. The cat licked Melinda’s hand, right? Confusing.
September 26, 2008 at 9:57 am
I hate spelling and grammer errors myself. Especially when people misuse their/there and your/you’re. I had Mrs. Bowles for English and to this day I say, sometimes outloud, “It’s not AT anywhere.”
But I have to say “its” confuses me sometimes. I think I would have said the cat licked it’s paw, because the paw belongs to the cat. The cat licked Melinda’s hand, right? Confusing.
September 26, 2008 at 9:58 am
Ok, I had a typo in the first one. Tried to fix it, so now you get to see exactly where my typo was and laugh!