So - less than one week into this new blog, and already I missed a day. All I can say in my defense is that I didn't even turn my computer on long enough on Sunday to do more than check email. The day was full. For a day of rest, it was very busy. My apologies - to any and everyone who might have wanted to read something new and fresh here.
Now, about those apostrophes. A commonplace in online composition is the habit so many people have developed of using the form "it's" for the possessive form of the third-person neutral pronoun. Grammarians howl when they see this, and more than once I've seen a reply to some post calling the author of the original post out because of this egregious misuse of English.
To repeat - the word "its" is the possessive form of the third-person neutral pronoun "it."
The word "it's" is the contraction equivalent to "it is."
And generally, apostrophes are not used to denote a plural form of some singular noun, as in "car's," "beer's," or "ICBM's."
Now, having said all that, is it possible that our language is evolving right before our eyes?
Cosmically speaking, it wasn't that long ago that the word "tis" was in wide usage. How many times a day do you hear that word now? And let's not forget the word "twas," as in, "Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house..."
I think it would be interesting, if it were possible, to use a time machine to go forward perhaps fifty or sixty years, and see what the common usage of apostrophes and related forms might have become. Oh, I'm sure there'd be other things to examine as well, but that would be a good way of seeing just what's happening with our English language in the age of the internet.
What are some of your pet peeves about modern usage of English? What misuse cues the monster in you? Let me know in the comments.
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