Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/01/29
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]>Ray Moth jotted down the following: > > > And what about the spelling of "its", often miss-spelled "it's"? I > > suppose I'm being pedantic but this really irritates me. "Its" denotes > > possession; "it's" is an abbreviation of "it is". For example: "It's > > time the dog ate its food." "That house lets in water through its roof > > whan it's raining." But this is a rule that simply makes no sense! (Much like boys not being able to wear their hats indoors, it is an archaic notion hanging round just to be bothersome)... Sic Luceat Lux: If Lucy has a certain characteristic we say "the quirk is her's" when speaking of it. If some non-gendered thing has a characteristic we say "the quirk is its" (or less awkwardly we refer to "Its quirk.") Both are relating possession but only the one uses the -'s-. For those folks used to other (more intuitive and consistent) languages this sort of nonsense rule is what makes Modern English so irritating. I say unto you: Lettuce go bak tu tha daise ware everee won speld inglish tha wae that it seemd most apropreeat tu them. (If it's a good enough habit for a wordsmith of good report like Wm. Shakespere, it should be good enough for us peasants.) Not to sound too much like 'enry 'iggin,s but with the advent of the internet and its cross pollination of the language, "English" will be barely recognisable is 20 years anyhow. C'est la vie. ;) Carpe Luminem, Michael E. Bérubé - --- Ni h-eibhneas gan Chlainn Domhnaill Ni comhnairt bheith 'ne n-eagmhais - -Giolla Colum mac an Ollaimh, Dean of Lismore 16thc