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#21
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Forgive the pedantic response, but I was always taught that any word formed
by the contraction of two words should include the apostrophe. Since 'it's' is composed of the words 'it' and 'is' it therefore should contain the apostrophe! Am I missing something? Genuinely interested to know... -- Wendy P in Stansted, UK Employ a teenager - while they still know everything! My pet peeve is using it's instead of its. -- the black rose, wench with a wrench proud to be owned by a yorkie http://community.webshots.com/user/blackrosequilts |
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#22
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I have to hop off my soapbox for this thread. I was taught this way in
English: if you write anything, no matter how clear and right text it is, if you write "I" with small i, you automatically flunk the test. That's the first thing you have to learn; I'm always big One thing about grammar is that not everyone, even those who's native language English is, can write correctly all the words. And as English isn't my native language, I think I'm allwoed to some mistakes. I try to write correct words, but sometimes I'm too lazy to check spelling from dictionary for some odd word. Biggest mistake in words that I see frequently made by native English speakers is "copyright". It's usually "copywright" or "copywrite".... Back to the soapbox, Johanna Reading poorly done posts doesnt bother me when I know there is a reason for it, such as a new mom nursing a baby while online, or a butterfly with a bum wing, but when there is no physical reason for not pressing that shift key, or tossing in a few well placed commas, I find myself turning to the next post. -- Johanna Koski Finland, Europe |
#23
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Forgive a pedantic answer!!
Apostrophes actually have more than one function, and it is this which leads to misunderstanding in usage. One use is for contraction: do not = don't can not = can't it is = it's (it's mine) the apostrophe here takes the place of the letter(s) omitted to make the contraction. The second use is to indicate possession: John's book (book of John) The third use (not often noted) is to form a plural when initials letters are used instead of a word. (this is to avoid confusion - so no-one thinks the pluralising 's' is part of the acronym): W.R.N.'s wrens - (Women's Royal Navy) it also now seems to be used with plurals of numbers: 10's and 20's (tens and twenties), though I don't know how correct that is. I assume it is because nowadays numbers are being written in their numeric form within prose, whereas, in the past, the words would have been used. Abbreviations, on the other hand, are pluralised by adding 's' in the same way as the full word: subs. = subscriptions (the full stop indicating the abbreviation coming after the 's') It's/its has a particular problem because the 'possessive' does *not* use the apostrophe: its placement (the placement of 'it') HTH .. In article , Wendy Playle writes Forgive the pedantic response, but I was always taught that any word formed by the contraction of two words should include the apostrophe. Since 'it's' is composed of the words 'it' and 'is' it therefore should contain the apostrophe! Am I missing something? Genuinely interested to know... -- Best Regards pat on the hill |
#24
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It's my opinion that it's possible that it's exactly the way you think it's
supposed to be unless it's that you're saying there are a lot of "its" in this sentence. ;~)))) Shirley "Wendy Playle" wrote in message .. . Forgive the pedantic response, but I was always taught that any word formed by the contraction of two words should include the apostrophe. Since 'it's' is composed of the words 'it' and 'is' it therefore should contain the apostrophe! Am I missing something? Genuinely interested to know... -- Wendy P in Stansted, UK Employ a teenager - while they still know everything! My pet peeve is using it's instead of its. -- the black rose, wench with a wrench proud to be owned by a yorkie http://community.webshots.com/user/blackrosequilts |
#25
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Wendy Playle wrote:
Forgive the pedantic response, but I was always taught that any word formed by the contraction of two words should include the apostrophe. Since 'it's' is composed of the words 'it' and 'is' it therefore should contain the apostrophe! Am I missing something? Genuinely interested to know... There are 2 words. One is the one you're refering to. "It is" is contracted to "it's." The other is "its" which means belonging to it. You can't substitute "it is" in the following sentences: I love the quilt; its color is a beautiful dark blue. With a new kitten, you often can't tell its sex. When you're unsure whether to use "it's" or "its," ask yourself if you can substitute "it is." If you can, use "it's." If you can't, use "its." If you get it wrong, a lot of people won't be able to make sense out of what you've written and will have to back up and figure out what you mean. When I have to do that too much with someone's posts, I stop reading them. I don't mind the occasional error; I make them too, but if there's no attention given to upper case/lower case or no effort put into punctuation at all, I give up. I figure the writer gave up so the reader can too. I rarely use "it's" any more. I use "it is" instead. I got so frustrated with everyone getting it wrong that I decided to give a permanent example of getting it right. --Lia |
#26
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Wendy Playle wrote:
Forgive the pedantic response, but I was always taught that any word formed by the contraction of two words should include the apostrophe. Since 'it's' is composed of the words 'it' and 'is' it therefore should contain the apostrophe! Am I missing something? Genuinely interested to know... You are right for the contraction of "It is", as in "It's a nice day today". But when you are using the possessive form of "it", you should not use the apostrophe; for example, you should write "The dog chased its tail", not "The dog chased it's tail". Julia in MN -- This message has been scanned for viruses by Norton Anti-Virus http://mail.chartermi.net/~jaccola/ |
#27
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John A. wrote:
On Wed, 30 Jun 2004 23:25:07 GMT, the black rose wrote: Shirley.Caylor wrote: My biggest bug-a-boo are those that use your instead of you're or no instead of know. My pet peeve is using it's instead of its. Unnecessary commas are fun. JA - Eats, shoots, and leaves. Green grocer's apostrophe's syndrome! As in Tomatoe's and potatoe's... And round here I've even seen cherrie's! -- Kate XXXXXX Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons http://www.diceyhome.free-online.co.uk Click on Kate's Pages and explore! |
#28
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Wendy Playle wrote:
Forgive the pedantic response, but I was always taught that any word formed by the contraction of two words should include the apostrophe. Since 'it's' is composed of the words 'it' and 'is' it therefore should contain the apostrophe! Am I missing something? Yep, what you're missing is that its and it's are two different words. "It's," as you have correctly pointed out , is the contraction of "it is." "Its," however, is the possessive form of "it": The quilt was beautiful; its colors shone. The rule of thumb is: if you can't substitute the words "it is," then you can't use "it's." "It is colors shone" would make no sense, so you know that you have to use "its." Clear as mud? -- the black rose, wench with a wrench proud to be owned by a yorkie http://community.webshots.com/user/blackrosequilts |
#29
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Kate Dicey wrote:
Green grocer's apostrophe's syndrome! As in Tomatoe's and potatoe's... And round here I've even seen cherrie's! shudder I walk around with a pen in my pocket and quietly scratch out the promiscuous apostrophes whenever I see them. For those who don't know what we're talking about, the only correct apostrophe in Kate's sentence is the first one in "grocer's." That indicates posession. All the others are incorrectly placed in plurals. It seems that people throw in an apostrophe when they don't know what else to do. The next one that drives me nuts is using ... whenever someone is afraid to punctuate. Go ahead and put a comma in the wrong place; that's forgiveable, but don't use ... instead of all punctuation. I believe books in the 30 years will start looking like this: the red death had long devastated the country ... no pestilence had ever been so fatal ... or so hideous ... blood was it's avatar and it's seal .... the redness and the horror of blood ... there were sharp pain's ... and sudden dizzines's ... and then profuse bleeding at the pore's ... with dissolution ... the scarlet stain's upon the body ... and especially upon the face ... of the victim were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellowmen's .. and the whole seizure ... progress and termination of the disease were the incident's of half an hour ... Oh the horror! --Lia |
#30
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"Kristen L. Renneker" wrote in message news:E3nEc.1203$7t3.664@attbi_s51... ok...i know after i post this i'll google and find what i'm looking for, but here it goes... I need a large amount of rainbow variegated thread...i've only ever seen it on relatively small spools, but i know i'll need a lot to finish this project, so i'm hoping to get a cone, figuring it will be cheaper than buing many small spools. have any of you seen such an animal? Not only seen, but own many such animals. Here's a few links for sources: http://www.kmquiltingsupply.com/thread.shtml http://columbiariverquilting.com/threads.html http://www.lequilters.com/categories.asp?id=15 All NAYY -- Kathy A. (Woodland, CA) longarm machine quilting, Queen of Fabric Tramps http://www.kayneyquilting.com , remove the obvious to reply |
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