Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected].
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected] or [email protected]
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
view the rest of the comments
Apostrophe also means possession, so why the historical nitpicky difference?
Apostrophe is only ever possessive when used with a noun.
Example:
"There was a stick in the dog's mouth" <- correct, dog is a noun
The word "its" is not a noun, Instead it serves the same function of possessive pronouns like "his" or "hers" and like those words it is never in this usage written with an apostrophe:
"The dog had a stick in his mouth" <--correct
"The dog had a stick in its mouth" <-- correct
"The dog had a stick in it's mouth" <-- wrong
In short, the ONLY rule you need to remember is that if the word "its" is short for "it is" then it should have an apostrophe, otherwise it doesn't.
That's all. One single rule, zero exceptions.
Then why does it vs it's break all the other rules of the apostrophe?
Where's the exact exception?
Others are telling you you're an idiot but you're not.
The noun-pronoun distinction for the possessive apostrophe is irrational. Unlike other European languages, English never had a formal institution to dictate orthography. This odd incoherence would never have lingered in French, let alone ultra-logical German.
Personally I think the possessive apostrophe looks semi-illiterate even when it's correct. It should be Harrys Bar like it would be in German.