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Comment by eliben | Hacker News Reader

... and I'm just sitting here, finding it horrible that even ZDnet articles make the its --> it's mistake these days :-/

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It's not really a mistake, possessive forms of pronouns are irregular with often several valid manifestations.

I'm.. not aware of any pronoun with multiple valid manifestations. Your comment completely baffles me. How is it in the slightest bit not a mistake?

Both its and it's are grammatically valid possessive forms.

Are you serious? it's is short for it is and not the possesive pronoun.

Yes, I am entirely serious. Up until early 1800s possessive it's was the grammatical norm. Today it's obsolete, but people who moan about the issue typically have no clue.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/it%27s#Adjective

This is one of the more common pitfalls that freshmen of Grammar Hitlerjugend step into.

I've ... never heard that.

> it could be bad timing for Amazon and it's new Kindle Fire HDX tablet

Is it valid here? If so, why? I've always been taught that "it's" was only a valid contraction of "it is" or rarely "it has", neither of which fit here.

http://www.englishforums.com/content/lessons/it-39-s-vs-its....

Scroll down to historical note.

I'd say it's a mistake that's common enough to be forgivable when made by the general public, but I doubt you'll find any grammatically reputable source that says it's not a mistake. The article gets it right elsewhere.

(We're talking about "it could be bad timing for Amazon and it's new Kindle Fire HDX tablet", right?)

You would certainly find possessive it's in Jane Ausen novels (and other contemporaries).

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