its

Comments

• Sredni Vashtar

  2016-06-21 03:53:48

  “I'm surprised. Those clothes… but, aren't you…?”

  own leg, like a ham hock.
• KilgoreTrout

  2016-06-21 12:03:38

  lack of said apostrophe is what differentiates it from the "it's" thread.
• Princess Alice

  2016-06-21 14:46:25

  You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022

  As a kid I always found it really unintuitive that possessive "its" doesn't have an apostrophe, because, well, possessives usually have an apostrophe, right?

  
  

  I realize now that it actually matches the pattern for possessive pronouns (his, hers, etc.) but 7-year-old Alice didn't think of it that way.
• Sredni Vashtar

  2016-06-21 15:23:19

  “I'm surprised. Those clothes… but, aren't you…?”

  The apostrophe is there in possessives because it was -es in earlier forms of English, like in German.
  
  Just an interesting titbit.
• Bee

  2016-06-21 16:58:29

  i hate these word crimes
• Tatterhood

  2016-06-21 17:02:31

  Central Avenue said:

  As a kid I always found it really unintuitive that possessive "its" doesn't have an apostrophe, because, well, possessives usually have an apostrophe, right?

  
  

  I realize now that it actually matches the pattern for possessive pronouns (his, hers, etc.) but 7-year-old Alice didn't think of it that way.

  Yeah, same.
  
• glennmagusharvey

  2016-06-21 18:23:53

  Central Avenue said:

  As a kid I always found it really unintuitive that possessive "its" doesn't have an apostrophe, because, well, possessives usually have an apostrophe, right?

  
  

  I realize now that it actually matches the pattern for possessive pronouns (his, hers, etc.) but 7-year-old Alice didn't think of it that way.

  You know what's even more unintuitive?
  
  The use of apostrophes for plurals.
  
  Why not use quotation marks to set off the thing instead?
  
• Bee

  2016-06-21 18:34:19 edited 2016-06-21 18:34:51

  You're not supposed to use apostrophes for plurals.  It only happen's because grocer's don't know how word's work.

  
  

  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/greengrocer's_apostrophe
  
• Princess Alice

  2016-06-21 18:37:44

  You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022

  One of the few exceptions where you do you apostrophes for plurals is letters.

  
  

  "I got straight A's", because "As" just looks like the word "as".
• Bee

  2016-06-21 18:42:15

  Technically you're not supposed to use apostrophes there either, but italicize the letter instead to set it apart.  But at least it's accepted as a practical violation.

  
  

  Something similar happens with plural acronyms.
• Princess Alice

  2016-06-21 18:52:48

  You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022

  I was always taught that the apostrophe was an acceptable alternative just because italicizing isn't always an option (for example, in handwriting)
• glennmagusharvey

  2016-06-21 18:53:10

  You can't always italicize, especially when using plaintext or handwriting.
  
  I sometimes decide to just append an s to make the plural even on a single letter, such as counting the number of Es in a passage, but the thing is that looks confusing.
  
  Meanwhile, some people insist that the game series is named Y's.  No, it's not; it's named after something called Ker Ys.
  
• Salix Babylonika

  2016-06-21 19:23:20

  https://i.imgur.com/IoGc2jA.jpg

  The thing is that these things are taught in so many different ways that there's no standard and probably never will be.

  
  

  For example!

  
  

  most people use apostrophes for plural possessives (the farmers' union, the students' council) and sometimes you'll hear that you should put an apostrophe on to the end of a word that ends in S and is also possessive (Nas' album), but I was also taught by not one but several people that you should do the same with words that end in Z. Granted you're only very rarely doing that in the first place (Taz' cartoons) but it does come up from time to time.
• Crystal

  2016-06-21 19:25:18

  Munch munch, chomp chomp...

  I was taught so many different things that I just take it case-by-case, go with the flow, and be happy that there's so much variety, and that it's all ultimately understandable in the end. And when needed as something specific, generally specified.
• Klinotaxis

  2016-06-21 20:10:29

  kill living beings
  

  I just think the etymology of "'s" is neat.
• glennmagusharvey

  2016-06-21 23:01:22

  Klinotaxis said:

  I just think the etymology of "'s" is neat.

  I think the etymology of "'s"'s neat.
  
• Tachyon

  2016-06-23 02:06:11 edited 2016-06-23 02:06:44

  ^{i will watch the heck outta this pumpkin patch}
  

  The rules for apostrophes are more confusing than most people realize; it's an exceedingly overworked punctuation mark.  According to Lynne Truss in Eats Shoots and Leaves, it's actually correct to use an apostrophe when pluralizing letters or mentions of words (e.g. "and's and but's").
  
  In the 19th century it was also correct to use an apostrophe when pluralizing a loanword ending in a vowel, such as "banana's" or "folio's", though this has not been considered correct for a long time.
  
• Imipolex G

  2016-06-23 02:24:05

  Touch the cow. Do it now.
  

  
  
  the crux of the biscuit
  
• Klinotaxis

  2016-06-23 02:26:06

  kill living beings
  

  I thought folio was Latin.
• Tachyon

  2016-06-23 02:28:36

  ^{i will watch the heck outta this pumpkin patch}
  

  It is.
  
• Tachyon

  2016-06-23 02:30:35

  ^{i will watch the heck outta this pumpkin patch}
  

  Well, it's a loanword, so it's also English.  The English plural is "folios".
  
• glennmagusharvey

  2016-06-23 03:07:13 edited 2016-06-23 03:07:53

  raisons d'etre
  
  maitres d'
  
  coups d'etat
  coups de grace
  
  octopodes
  
• glennmagusharvey

  2016-06-23 03:08:11

  and then there are the ones people argue over:
  
  anime/animes
  
  pikachu/pikachus
  
• Tachyon

  2016-06-23 03:10:53

  ^{i will watch the heck outta this pumpkin patch}
  

  "Pikachu" is the canonically correct plural
  
  i can only recall ever encountering "animes" in contexts where it was plainly jocular; otherwise it would tend to suggest the speaker is ignorant i think.
  
• Tatterhood

  2016-06-23 03:11:33

  the plural of anime is animorphs
  
• Bee

  2016-06-23 03:26:12

  I'm like 80% sure all Pokemon species pluralize the same as their singular.
• Tatterhood

  2016-06-23 03:27:46

  I think canonically 100% of them do.
  
• Klinotaxis

  2016-06-23 03:30:14

  kill living beings
  

  A herd of Miltanks, a homicide of Houndooms,
• Tachyon

  2016-06-23 03:34:04

  ^{i will watch the heck outta this pumpkin patch}
  

  Tatterhood said:

  I think canonically 100% of them do.
  

  yeah, i'm fairly sure this is correct
  
• Bee

  2016-06-23 03:38:32

  Granted, that's probably because too many species already met the old 10-character limit.  Still.

  
  

  I've seen an interesting fan convention too where you only capitalize it if you're talking about a specific one, but the species is lowercase like Mass Effect does with the aliens.
• Tatterhood

  2016-06-23 03:50:42

  Tachyon said:

  Tatterhood said:

  I think canonically 100% of them do.
  

  yeah, i'm fairly sure this is correct
  

  oh, now I realize I misread Bee's post, I thought he said 80% of Pokémon rather than 80% sure