Possessives
Hi all,
Hate to be a grammar maven, but this REALLY irks a LOT of people, so I thought I'd post some simple rules of thumb on possessives:
Picture a male dog. The dog has a tail. It is the dog's tail. It is his tail.
It is NOT hi's tail. Please, people. The only way this would be Hi's tail is if the dog's name is Hi.
In short...
If you can substitute the pronoun "his" then it DOESN'T need an apostrophe.
Words like "says", "does", "runs" are present tense verbs and have NOTHING to do with apostrophes or possessives.
I hope this simple rule of thumb helps reduce the widespread misuse of possessive apostrophes.
If you can substitute the pronoun "his" then it DOESN'T need an apostrophe.
And yes, if you can put "hers" or "its" then it goes for that as well. A lot of people think "it's" is always correct. Not true. "It's" is a CONJUNCTION of "it is". Pronouns do not use apostrophes. Period.
Last edited by jennifa; 08-14-2002 at 12:41 PM.
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