gigantic peeve: check out those its
I have tried really hard to keep silent, I really have. I don’t want to offend my loved ones that are afflicted with this condition. I don’t want to be the cranky, grammar-correcting schoolmarm. But jesus christ, people:
IT’S MEANS “IT IS.” DON’T USE THE APOSTROPHE AT ANY OTHER TIME. I have been driven to all-caps usage. This means that I am serious.
Every time you wonder whether to use “it’s” or “its”, say “it is” in your head, rereading your sentence:
- Sentence: “It’s a giant pet peeve of mine.”
Say to yourself: “It is a giant pet peeve of mine.”
DING DING – makes sense! You can use “It’s” - Sentence: “The monster looked at the knife in it’s hands.”
Say to yourself: “The monster looked at the knife in it is hands.”
BUZZZZZ – makes no sense! You can’t use “it’s”
Correct sentence: “The monster looked at the knife in its hands.”
This incorrect usage is so widespread and so unchecked that I don’t think anyone cares anymore. And it makes me crazy; I really feel like we’re slipping towards the fall of our empire that much faster. If everyone and their dog (and me) are going to email, blog, myspace, write write write write, it behooves us all that we take a swipe at our writing with a scrubbing pad called grammar!
And I know I am the pot informing the kettle of its blackness. I am as sloppy and as informal as you can when when I write (outside of work), and I’m sure good writers are cringing at every hambox-produced ellipse, made up word, and dangling participle (if I knew what that was).
Whew. Be glad you weren’t around in the early days of the Death of Typography (late 80s), when everyone and their dog (but not me) were using inch-marks instead of real quotation marks. I was beside myself.
Geeez! Now I’m all insecure about my writing…. :P~ It’s funny, last week, i was out at barnes & noble, and i bought a book called “Painless Grammar” and is actually a pretty funny book – giving thoughtful examples of bad grammar, good grammar, and tips/exercises to help with grammar in general. Anyway, I guess I was on the same mindset, as I was trying to help my boyfriend with grammar and punctuation since his strength is math and definitely not writing. Did I have a point? I can’t remember now. But your blog made me laugh, and self conscious, and annoyed, all at the same time. 🙂
“But your blog made me laugh, and self conscious, and annoyed, all at the same time.”
Now you live in my world. HaHA!
Yah! I finally got this earlier this year! However, knowing this and actually doing this… Let’s just say that proof-reading my work has led to many adjustments to the spelling of “they’re”. Arg.
P.S. I love grammar and punctuation tutorials. My brain is finally able to absorb some of it. I got a D in grammar in High School.
It comes to my realization that, with my obnoxious and commanding tone of this post, that I am scolding my precious readers personally. It is more like yelling at the universe, not intended to produce feelings of guilt. I will never judge my loved ones if they use bad grammar!!!
me am happy about last statement having. I’ts goodfeeling making.