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Comment by obiterdictum | Hacker News Reader

I am not a native English speaker, but I'm constantly dumbfounded as to why anyone would even entertain the idea that "its/it's" are in any way similar. When you substitute one with another, the sentence just does not parse. It stops making sense.

By conflating "its" and "it's", you are overloading the meaning of "its", making the language more ambiguous.

Perhaps this also has to do with me being accustomed to more formal (programming) languages.

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The reason it's confusing is that 's after a personal pronoun usually indicates possession, whereas this is the opposite for it's/its, so in that sense it's an exception to a rule, which people have a hard time remembering.

What personal pronouns have 's for the possesive form? Mine's? Your's? Hi's? Her's? Their's?

Ah, you found the rule for when you don't use it. Contrary to many textbooks, teachers, and websites, the lack of an apostrophe in "its" is not an exception--you don't use the apostrophe for pronouns. "His". "Hers". "Yours". As apposed to "Jack's", "Julie's", "the user's".

"opposed".

Normally I wouldn't correct you, but this being the grammar nazi thread and all...

"Its" is only used in places where "his", "her", and "your", which don't have the s's, are used. People don't use "its" in places where they'd use "hers" or "yours". It's awkward.

That's a better example. My explanation was wrong, but it's still an exception in the context you provide.

Bob's house. The mayor's key. The people's choice.

Those are nouns, not pronouns.

Sorry, I used the wrong terminology.

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