Hello.
On the side bar of your home page, you use “it’s” several times for the possessive, as in “the thing belonging to it is it’s.” However, this usage with the apostrophe can only be the conjunction of “it” and “is” or “it” and “has,” as in “It is a lovely day; it’s dry and sunny.” For the possessive, you just want “its”: no apostrophe.
Thanks teach! You’re right… “it’s” a personal pronoun thing, no apostrophe to indicate possession. Just when I thought I had grammar conquered. I’ll fix that.
The exception to the general rule that one should use an apostrophe to indicate possession is in possessive pronouns. Some of them are not a problem. “Mine” has no misleading “s” at the end to invite an apostrophe. And few people are tempted to write “hi’s,” though the equally erroneous “her’s” is fairly common, as are “our’s” and “their’s”—all wrong, wrong, wrong. The problem with avoiding “it’s” as a possessive is that this spelling is perfectly correct as a contraction meaning “it is.” Just remember two points and you’ll never make this mistake again. (1) “it’s” always means “it is” or “it has” and nothing else. (2) Try changing the “its” in your sentence to “his” and if it doesn’t make sense, then go with “it’s.”
There is one personal pronoun—uncommon in American English—which takes an apostrophe in its possessive form: “one,” as in the title of Virginia Woolfe’s famous book, A Room of One’s Own.
One of the biggest sources of confusion to writers is the difference between its and it’s. Normally the noun possessive is formed by adding apostrophe + s. However, we just mentioned that personal pronouns never take the apostrophe + s. It is a personal pronoun used to describe things. “It’s” is a contraction between the words “it is”. Contractions are two words shortened into one.
A good rule of thumb to check your own writing is to try to substitute the words “it is” every time you use “it’s. If the sentence makes sense, you’ve used it correctly. If the sentence does not make sense, reach for the possessive case and use instead “its.”
Hello.
On the side bar of your home page, you use “it’s” several times for the possessive, as in “the thing belonging to it is it’s.” However, this usage with the apostrophe can only be the conjunction of “it” and “is” or “it” and “has,” as in “It is a lovely day; it’s dry and sunny.” For the possessive, you just want “its”: no apostrophe.
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Good luck!
Thanks teach! You’re right… “it’s” a personal pronoun thing, no apostrophe to indicate possession. Just when I thought I had grammar conquered. I’ll fix that.
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/its.html
http://www.yourdictionary.com/grammar-rules/Possessive-Nouns.html