Why, oh why, can't you figure out the difference between its and It's?

I definitely know the difference between its and it’s. It’s is a contraction of “it” and “is.”

Its is the possessive form of it and the only possessive I know of that doesn’t include an apostrophe.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard: Show-off.

Well, its complicated. Their is a time and place for it, but its not here.

I do, and I am trying to teach my best friends little sister the difference between it’s and its, and to, and too. It’s a pet peeve when written wrong.

What really pisses me off is when people don’t know the difference between “your” and “you’re.”

YOUR SUCH A GOOD FREND!111!!!!

hurr durr.

Chyna, you must have missed the one about their, there, and they’re.

Seeing it in your head and typing out are two different things. Anyway, I worry more about if I’m clean and fed for the day and can get to work more than if I’ve typed proper contractions.

What’s wrong with definitely?

@perspicacious No, just messing with @gailcalled

I think it’s a matter of ignorance and indifference. Some don’t know, some don’t care.

I still believe that many instances of confusing “its” and “it’s” are accidental and are done by people that do know the difference, but are simply typing quickly and making a mistake. Same goes for all homophone-related mistakes in English.

It is time to come clean. This hurts me, but here goes: My name is SuperMouse and I have struggled with the Its vs. It’s Issue.

I’ll tell you what made it tough for me: the fact that most of the time an apostrophe is used to show possession. In the word it’s, the apostrophe is used for the contraction of two words and the its without the apostrophe shows possession. I was vexed by the variation in the rules for quite a long time. I have long since been schooled in the ways of the use of the apostrophe in the various forms of pluralizing the word that is spelled i-t, but it takes constant vigilance on my part to be sure I get it write right.

@SuperMouse I sympathize. If you were to use logic and precedent, it would indeed go the other way.

I don’t know. It’s very straight forward. I do think sometimes it’s a typo. And don’t get me started on less v.s. fewer. :)

If some people on here do not know the difference in its, it’s, your and you’re, then how do you think new immigrants will ever understand it?

The English language is one of the most difficult languages to learn. one word can have many different meanings, depending on how it’s used in a sentence.

It’s definitely common for me to be a bit dyslexic when in high frequency thought mode and make typos I know better about.

I often spell ‘friend’ ‘freind’ and another is ‘thought’ that I catch as ‘thoguht.’ haha

It happens…..I usually catch them.
Unless someones writing is particularily atrocious I think the spelling police should just let it go.

Bad grammar is annoying, but being OCD and nit picky is worse.

Everyone has THEIR weaknesses so THERE! lol

@john65pennington English is not my first language, and I understand the differences. The rules are not that hard, and people shouldn’t use that as an excuse if they simply don’t care about them.

Its definately a conspiracy!

As I’m typing I say, in my head, “it is” so I know I’ve got the right one. Then I proofread like crazy to catch any errors.

@Coloma As long as you’re not confusing the friends you hang out with with the fiends you encounter I don’t see the problem with an occasionally misplaced or forgotten letter.

@lillycoyote

Haha…I do my best to keep the fiends at bay!

I’m pretty forgiving of minor error, but when someone cannot even spell the simplest of words I kinda shake my head in disbelief…how did they ever get through school? :-/

@gailcalled Its a personnel a front to our ways of lives. Lets us gets it alot so we can route out the people’s who aresen’t from heres or the person who won’t dun let us showing this English from the history … oh hell. I can’t do this any longer…

@gailcalled ~ in the fourth or fifth grade I competed in the spelling bee at school and was eliminated on the word definitely. I think I spelled it: definetely. I never mispelled it after that.

I make up my own words too..like ‘binster.’ I can never remember ‘dumpster.’ lol

@Coloma Just pointing out the obvious. Maybe some people don’t care about misspellings and typos, but in the end, the only thing keeping your friends from being fiends is the r. :)

@lillycoyote

Hah, now that’s profound! lol

@mcbealer I still couldn’t spell definitely on the first try if my life depended on it, but this question has made me determined to fix. The only problem left is to not use it so much, not as a substitute for clear, concise writing.

i know the difference, im just lazy as hell sometimes.
apostrophes take mad work yo….

@lillycoyote~ I agree… oops it looks like I misspelled the word misspelled, ha ha

@mcbealer And what’s my problem? ”... but this question has made me determined to fix.” ???? Determined to fix what? I seem to be missing an object there, somewhere. :) I am most certainly not without sin, it appears. :)

Well on my part I have a new child at home. I’m a bit of a hair brain. I don’t always have time or the forethought to re-read my posts. My hormones are all out of whack and I am nursing so that adds to it. Half the time I am nursing while typing so just forget it altogether. I say cut us some slack!

I used to never get any of them wrong. Now it happens all the time. What used to happen is that I was observing while typing. What changed? The time I used to use for observing was taken by something else. Naturally my brain went for the most efficient choice – write the way you hear it combined with the most common usage. You see the confusion is actually the most rational in terms of efficiency.

So what takes up so much of that time I used to use to double check myself. It’s a combination of worries, multi-thinking bottlenecked by single-threaded typing, and live nude brainstorming, getting the rawest points across with devastating results, until the grammartwats come on-line.

I know the difference, but somethins my fingers or y keybosrd have a mind of their own.

There should be a support group for this.

Today I had to send my students—all seniors in college—an email explaining the difference between illicit and elicit. I included the Latin roots for no real reason other than to be a jerk about it.

Also included in the email: affect vs. effect and et al.

@nikipedia, it was probably a welcome reminder.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard Don’t forget hers, his, your, yours, my, and mine…

The one I’m struggling with these days, out of freaking nowhere, is “Poof and I” and “Poof and me”

@poofandmook: Absolutely no need to struggle. Separate the noun (Poof) and the pronoun.

I am worried about my boyfriend. (Poof and I are worried about my boyfriend.)

That seems ridiculous to me. (That seems ridiculous to Milo and me.)

Milo scratched me. (Milo scratched Poof and me).

It’s simplicity itself.

@gailcalled: Oh, I know. Just for some reason I’ve been hearing it come out of my mouth the wrong way. It’s like there’s some evil bad-grammar elf in my brain when I try to speak.

Maaybee oui shud jist go balls owt end rite az whorably az pozibull az in axersize en gitting owt ov hour komford sone.

I totally know the difference. In fact, I’m also armed with your and you’re knowledge, not to mention then and than. I have trouble with the latter, but the real question of the century is how the fuck did ’‘om nom nom’’ become an online meme.

I know the difference just can’t explain it, :) (english’s not my 1st language)

Your brain is wired for surviving, living, and thriving. If it thinks the language is retarded it will say it wrong.

@antivigilante: Please define what you mean by “retarded” language. You mean language that has grammatical and spelling irregularities and regional idiom? That covers all of the languages I am familiar with.