• Kiosade@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    19
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    To be fair, whomever decided to use an apostrophe to indicate possession AND abbreviation clearly didn’t think through all the possible conflicts before going ahead and making it a thing. Should have made a separate symbol for one of them.

    • w2tpmf@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      10
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yes, thousands of years of established language development is wrong … not the individual who is unable to learn what millions of others have been able to.

      • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yes, thousands of years of established language development is wrong

        Yes, it is. Island has an ‘s’ in it as a stylistic choice to Latinize a word that has no Latin root. Literally is now defined as “not literally” which is absurd. That’s established language development.

        If people keep using “it’s” as possessive then it will become possessive, and nothing will be lost.

        • Leg@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          7
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Language sticklers are an interesting phenomenon to me. Language has always evolved with its users. The only rule is that we understand each other when we use it, and that rule allows massive flexibility. Watching it evolve in real-time is more fun than trying to police someone for using an apostrophe.

          • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            1 year ago

            Language sticklers are an interesting phenomenon to me

            It’s weird if you think about it. They’re basically saying “English was exactly correct at an arbitrary moment in time that I chose.” Anything different before that (such as ‘iland’) is wrong, but any new changes are an abomination.

            • Fal@yiffit.net
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              9
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              That’s totally not fair. Some things are more wrong than others. And the “everything is correct even” language people are just as insufferable as the “there is exactly one correct usage” people.

              Using it’s instead of its is not slang, or an evolving use or alternative spelling. It’s simply wrong.

              • mmagod@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                1 year ago

                i’m glad this is being discussed. i felt like i was among very few in how i felt about that use of its vs it’s.

                just say “it is” and use it’s as the possessive… like every other word in the language and stop failing people on exams

              • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                1 year ago

                I don’t disagree that it’s wrong, but I had no difficulty understanding the sentence so I don’t care. The correction is just a distraction.