Comma Sense by Richard Lederer

Author:Richard Lederer
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0765300168
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

The answer, of course, is the dog in the second sentence: In sentence (a), the dog knows who its master is. In sentence (b), the clever canine knows that it is master.

Its, all by itself, without the imposition of any apostrophe, is a complete, whole, integral, let-it-alone word. Its is the possessive form of it. Yes, when it comes to the possessive form of it, it’s its, all the way.

Why are folks forever confusing poor little its with it’s? One, after all, is the possessive form of it, and the other is two words (it is) crammed together to make one word that looks exactly like all the rules say the possessive form of it should look,

Okay, here’s the deal. People could say “it is” all the time: “It is to die for”; “It is time for you to go home, you loser.” But people, being communication machines, aren’t going to wait around to say and hear “it is” all the time. Forget it. We’re a quick species. We want to communicate now. There’s no way we’re not going to turn into one word two words we constantly use together.

Puh-leeze. When e-mail became painfully slow, we invented instant messaging.

Like we’d wait around to hear or burble out, “it is”—or “can not,” or “will not.”

And what makes the contraction work? You guessed it: ye oleic apostrophe.

Let ye olde apostrophe go to work on two commonly used words, and look what happens:

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