Life, food, events, and community in Albuquerque, NM
The Grammar Wall of Shame: Its vs It's
The rule of thumb is:
it's = it is
its = belonging to it
Offender:
How can Downtown Albuquerque live up to it's potential?
I know there have been more, but this group never existed before. Wait -- I just assumed that this was the place to quietly post grammatical errors rather than tearing my hair out from the effort to keep quiet and/or commenting in blazingly snarky prose with the sort of pettiness that makes me sometimes hate myself.
Is that right?
it's = it is
its = belonging to it
Offender:
How can Downtown Albuquerque live up to it's potential?
I know there have been more, but this group never existed before. Wait -- I just assumed that this was the place to quietly post grammatical errors rather than tearing my hair out from the effort to keep quiet and/or commenting in blazingly snarky prose with the sort of pettiness that makes me sometimes hate myself.
Is that right?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by ayax on -
That was an easy one...
Next challenge: what is wrong in the following sentence?
"The media is following the case closely."
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Permalink Reply by hettie on -
I think some folks are confused by the lack of "s" at the end, meaning it can't possibly be plural, right? maybe we should start referring to the "mainstream medias." scratch that. it actually makes my head hurt a little.
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Permalink Reply by mombat on -
I know that media is plural, like data.
Just for the sake of argument could both be correct?
As in:
Local media are reporting that the influx of three-headed iguana people bodes well for local optometrists.
But, what about referring to the "The Media" as when people use it to mean the media as an entity unto itself?
The media is controlled by the anti-iguana forces and will not cover the story.
Or maybe this is just an example or the decline of literacy?
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Permalink Reply by ayax on
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Nah. It should always be a plural. Oh yes, "data". Another example.
Interesting: "police" from what I hear, is a plural in English, while it is a singular in some of the languages I speak, like German and French (in Spanish too, I suppose).
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Permalink Reply by mombat on
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Hmm... maybe that is part of the problem with the English plural.
The articles don't always change.
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Permalink Reply by Samantha Anne Scott on -
This is definitely one of the most common and, thus, most annoying grammatical errors.
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Permalink Reply by ayax on
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OK. Here's one from these very pages.
Something is not right here, I think.
"But not every member of Congress puts their vote where their mouth is."
[I understand there is the problem of female and male members (of Congress)].
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Permalink Reply by GuitarDiva on
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You're not alone; the "its" versus "it's" thing makes me crazy, too. It's everywhere. I even saw a gorgeous art quilt that got it wrong. Ruined the whole thing.
I vote for blazingly snarky prose, just for fun.
My other favorite was a kid being interviewed on television because he had just gotten a scholarship to an Ivy League university, and in response to some question I can't remember now, his answer was, "I don't got no....."
Wonder what the kids who didn't get the scholarships sounded like?
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Permalink Reply by Adelita on -
When I physically write something on a piece of paper I always use its and it's correctly. But for some reason when I type on a computer, my pinkie always wants to use the apostrophe. It's like I have no control.
What about your and you're?
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