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Comment by jjw1414 | Hacker News Reader

Is that true? A statement like, "Drive Tom's car" is grammatically correct, but I don't think it is expanded to "Drive Tom is car".

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That's because "Tom's" is possessive in this case. The possessive form of "it" is "its" (no apostrophe). The way I remember it: if you can substitute "his" or "hers" for "its", then don't use an apostrophe.

I like that, I'll use it. I still forget it's vs. its.

This is precisely why I think usage is changing and will continue to change. The current "rule" (which isn't really a rule, since there is no official governing body of the English language) is an unnecessary and arbitrary special case. The meaning can nearly always be easily understood from context.

You are completely mistaken. "Its" isn't violating the apostrophe rule at all. "Its" is a possessive pronoun just like hers, theirs, his, ours, mine.

All the other pronouns have different pronunciations for their possessive and contraction forms, and also vary in spelling more than a single apostrophe, so the written mistake is unlikely to occur for those.

Arguing that there are no rules in English on the basis that there isn't a governing body seems to misunderstand what rules are. Being largely dead, the Romans no longer defend classical latin, but that doesn't mean it has no rules.

Rules can change over time and you do not need a governing body for rules to exist as rules are just as easily defined by consensus as by imposition.

It is generally known that its and it's have different meanings. People may regularly confuse them and the confusion may eventually eliminate the rule, but that does not mean there is currently no rule.

Or to put it another way, if English has no rules, have understand problem no will sentence you this to.

Hah yea, this is a particularly nasty part of the language IMO. I was wrestling with it recently. For pronouns, the apostrophe is only to indicate a contraction. Possessive pronouns like "hers" do not use an apostrophe. So "it's" always means "it is." Where "its" always is expressing that "it" possesses something.

I usually refer to this handy illustrated guide http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apostrophe :D

> So "it's" always means "it is."

Sadly, no. "It's been like this for days."

Usually, -'s can mean either singular possessive or a contraction for "- is." "It," however, is a special case. "Its" is possessive, and "It's" is reserved only for the contraction of the phrase "It is."

Apologies if I did not post my question in the proper format. It was my first post. I am not sure why I was down-voted. My question was sincere. I couldn't find a clear answer with a quick search.

It's possessive in that instance.

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