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Subject:Re: Re[2]: It's and its From:"R. SITZE" <rositze -at- NMSU -dot- EDU> Date:Tue, 25 Jun 1996 17:41:38 -0600
On Tue, 25 Jun 1996, Virginia L. Krenn wrote:
> However, if the possessive rule is followed, it would make sense to
> write "it's". The problem is that this is an exception to the rule.
Not so. The 's is used to show possession with used with nouns, but
never with pronouns. Possessive pronouns have their own forms (his,
hers, its, their, etc.) so do not need the 's to show possession.
Our use of the 's with nouns to show possession goes back to an older way
of showing possession. At one time it was customary to say something
like "Tom his house" where today we would say Tom's house. People tended
to say the phrase quickly and the words became slurred over. Eventually
we began leaving out the "hi" in "his" and the apostrophe took their place.
Since "his" was already possessive, there was no need to do this for the
pronoun.
RoMay Sitze, rositze -at- nmsu -dot- edu
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