3 ms·

> Normally in English, 's indicates a possessive. It seems that the opposite is true. ' indicates a contraction first, and possibly a possessive iff no such co

• belltaco 6y ago
  "John is" is not contracted to "John's", so it's confusing to have "It is" contracted to "It's".
  • Stratoscope 6y ago
    > "John is" is not contracted to "John's" John's not sure he agrees.
  • samatman 6y ago
    Fun historical fact: "John's knife" was once a contraction of "John his knife". No longer of course, the latter isn't grammatically correct in modern English. But that's where it comes from.
    • acheron 6y ago
      This is not true, it came from an inflectional ending in Old English. https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/history-and-use-of-the-apostrophe https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/history-and-us... uses the example “cyning” (king) and “cyninges” (king’s). In theory the apostrophe stands for the missing e.
      • samatman 6y ago
        Goes to show I shouldn't trust something, just because it was taught to me in school...
  • hnick 6y ago
    > "John is" is not contracted to "John's" It is, actually. It's just best avoided due to confusion unless you're doing it for quoting or dialogue purposes. https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/contractions-with-proper-nouns-brians-a-baseball-fan https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/contracti...