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I appreciate why the title was modified from the original, but the mistaken use of "it's" rather than "its" was introduced in the process and should be correcte
by itp 7y ago
I appreciate why the title was modified from the original, but the mistaken use of "it's" rather than "its" was introduced in the process and should be corrected.
- thechao 7y agoThere’s a trivial way for native English speakers to learn this rule: replace ‘it’ with ‘his’, appropriately, adjust comma to suit. > Amazon has ceded control of hi’s site to a 3rd party... Obviously incorrect.
- floren 7y ago> There’s a trivial way for native English speakers to learn this rule: replace ‘it’ with ‘his’, appropriately, adjust comma to suit. I prefer the handy jingle, "If it's supposed to be possessive, it's just i-t-s, if it's supposed to be a contraction it's i-t-apostrophe-s. Scalawag."
- rblatz 7y agoHow did you type that message with boxing gloves on?
- mkl 7y agoIt's an apostrophe, not a comma, and unfortunately that won't work in the case where it should be "it's", like at the start of this sentence, but yes. "It's" only ever means "it is" or "it has". </pedantic>
- usrusr 7y agoWhat if he actually is an apostrophe? Disregarding the semantic absurdity (and the e/i mismatch), the rule works fine: "his an apostrophe" should look a lot more wrong to anyone with enough understanding of English that its/it's mistakes make a difference than "he's an apostrophe". "He's" also only ever means "he is" or "he has", just like "it's". That's the entire point of this little memory aid.
- jtbayly 7y agoWhen does "hi's" ever look correct though?
- 1986 7y agoThat's the point!
- kevin_thibedeau 7y agoHis arrival elicited a number of hi's.
- late2part 7y agoThis is the third spelling error on HN titles in the last 72 hours. Sort of disappointing.
- dredmorbius 7y agoSuch requests can be emailed to hn@ycombinator.com (I've done so.)