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"its"
"then"for than ..absolutely not allowed anywhere ..result of sloppy listening and bad diction applied to spelling .
"advise" and "advice" are two different animals the former being what one does ..the latter what one gives when doing the former
>side note to Lawman ..I too was taught and taught "I" as opposed to "me" in that context ..
As the language is normally referred to as "The Queen's English" one would suppose that her speech would be the touchstone ..she still uses "I" ..
However with the almost total lack of competence of English teachers in schools since the 1960's and the even more lamentable levels attained in the subject by their pupils ..apparently the approved usage version has been "dumbed" down so as not to embarrass those who used "me" ..
>
Examination standards of English ( and many other subjects ) have been falling or were "pushed" to conform to the "PC" idea that there should be no perceivable failures ...of course that doesn't mean that some folks can neither read nor write clearly ..merely that we should not mention it ..
( so now everyone has a paper qualification ..that doesn't mean squat ..but they don't find that out until they have left school with it :(
England has just announced (as if the concept were magically found )..that schools will commence phonetic learning of the alphabet and spelling ..
( seems to me that was how I learned ..nearly 50 years ago )
The problem they will have as will most countries which go back to that approach is in finding enough teachers who can speak correctly and clearly to teach ..
I notice listening to many english politicians that the "glottal stop" is alive and well ..and that most of them have no real grasp of the meaning of the words they use ..the same applies to radio and TV presenters ..
It isn't their accents that bother me ..it is their speaking like barrow boys or girls on amphetamines ..or their total missuse of words ( those "British" who are old enough to remember the comedienne Hilda Baker may remark that most of the current Blair cabinet use words with the same reckless abandon for their real meaning as did Hilda ) ..does nobody ever tell them "actually that is not the correct word for what you wish to convey ..it just sounds like the correct one .."?..
Sounds like a rant ..not really ..if one wishes to communicate one has to agree on a common version of the grunts that we apes use ..be they vocal ..or on paper or screen .:)
Gee, we've already listed every word that popped into my head when I saw the subject. BTW, I see a lot of really educated people having trouble with
"definitely."
I have young kids. They covered too, two and to in about 2nd grade. I made darn sure they learned these words well when they were starting out.
Drives me nuts!
If it is the possesive it has to be it's ..I never saw any other variety of it .
Actually, "it's" is a contraction for "it is" or "it has."
The possessive is "its" without an apostrophe.
This is one of those exceptions to the rule, where many think someone is wrong, even when they are correctly using it.
loose vs. lose
Drives me nuts!
Yeah.... if any of them bother me, it's that one, especially since it's usually someone calling someone else a "looser."
loose vs. lose
Drives me nuts!
Shouldn't that be "Drive's me nuts"?
;)
Shouldn't that be "Drive's me nuts"?
No.
Drives me nuts, I was just lazy and didn't put the "It" in front.
Your going to love it (sorry, couldn't resist ;), my moneies on "your" as an abbrev. That's the worst by far and away [wsu.edu]).
Google for it gives
90 million correct at "accommodation"
10 millioon incorrect at "accomodation"
1 million incorrect at "acommodation"
1 million incorrect at "acomodation"
I had to laugh - My wife always switches "bring" and "take" ("could you bring this out to the car?"). I have tried to convince her that they are not interchangeable, but could never find anything to back up the distinction.
Actually, "it's" is a contraction for "it is" or "it has."
The mark (') used to indicate the omission of one or more letters from a printed word
I prefer American english ..but bending the rules does not negate their existence ..
[edit]Sure enough, it was on Brian's list of errors it's/its [wsu.edu] [/edit]
"Its" is neuter possessive. (possessive, neither masculine nor feminine in gender.)
(@Leosghost)I don't know about rules for variations of english in various countries, so I don't know that we couldn't both be right.
I keep trying to spell possessive wrong, so that's at least a personal one for me. I'm hardly a spelling or grammar expert.
They can even phrase Emails correctly.
They can even phrase Emails correctly.
Don't you mean "can't?"
;-)
Thus it is it's even when it's the it's you are referring to ..possessive or not
? Didn't we already determine that the possessive form does NOT have an apostrophe?
BTW, the possessive "its" is not quite as big an exception as some think: there are NO instances in which an personal pronoun uses an apostrophe to form a possessive. Other cases: ours, yours, hers, theirs
(@Leosghost)I don't know about rules for variations of english in various countries, so I don't know that we couldn't both be right.
No, oneguy, you had it right to start with -- the spelling for the neuter possessive "its" is the same everywhere, even here in the U.S.!
I don't let it bother me very much, I figure it's just another manifestation of the gonad fixation that seems to be "normal" for the male of the species.
Lawman - that's an excellent site.
