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Zach Hope
12,486 PointsQuestion about “it’s” with the apostrophe.
I feel as though both “it’s” should have the apostrophe because the first is a possessive and the second is a contraction.
1 Answer
andren
28,558 PointsThe fact that the first word is meant to be possessive is exactly why using it's is marked as wrong. it's is a contraction that means either "It is" or "It has" and that is the only meaning it has. It is not the possessive form of the word it.
So "it's smell" would be read as either "it is smell" or "it has smell" neither of which would work in that sentence.
The possessive form of the word it is its, and nothing else. While it is true that in many cases you make a word possessive by adding an 's to it that is not always the case. Take words like hers, his, theirs, etc. Those words are inherently possessive, so adding a 's to them would be wrong. The same is true for its.
Zach Hope
12,486 PointsAh that makes a lot of sense , thank you Andren!
Zach Hope
12,486 PointsZach Hope
12,486 PointsThat is in the question about the Bacon in the commonly confused words quiz where the answer “it’s smell is wonderful and it’s the best part of breakfast” comes back wrong.