Basic and Advanced You're
External contributions are welcome provided that you suggest suitable
definitions!
Last modified: Aug 31 2004
- your
- Belonging to you.
- you're
- Short for "you are".
- its
- Belonging to it.
- it's
- Short for "it is" or "it has".
Get it right, for God's sake. Pigs can work out how to use
a joystick, and people still can't do this!
The Government aims to have 80% of school leavers able to spell
"you're" and "its" by 2006. Not really, of course. Even the quality
press (e.g. the Independent) can't get it consistently right. On
October 2nd, 1998, the Times Higher Education Supplement reported that
78% of British students were unable to spell ``its''.
Angela Holt writes:
Someone needed to say it. Thank you! It's one of my biggest pet
peeves!
Janet McKnight writes:
I hereby swear that when I'm a teacher, if my pupils learn NOTHING ELSE
while they are at the school in which I teach, then they will at least
learn to use "it's"/"its" and "your"/"you're".
Elizabeth ``Morgause'' Wootten writes:
My mother tells me that they'd had a banner made to go over the church
gates at home advertising a coffee morning. It arried advertising Tea's
and Coffee's. They bollocked the sign company who sent someone round
immediately to fix it. The signman went, leaving a proud new banner
advertising Teas' and Coffees'. AT this point the gave up
and did it themselves. Maybe you should add a bit to the effect that
plurals never want apostrophes to denote pluralness. Ever. Ever.
Sharon Curtis writes:
I like your words page, those sort of things really
get up my nose! I can understand and forgive typos,
I can even understand some spelling mistakes, after all
there are no hard and fast rules for spelling, there are
always exceptions. But no one has an excuse for confusing
"its" with "it's", all they have to do is ask themself
the question "Do I mean ``it is''?"
Anyway, I have another one for you. Big peeve of mine,
to hear hear people talk about how they need to
"loose weight". It conjures up terribly gory images
of people hacking off surplus flesh with a hacksaw to
make it more loose. YUCK!
Robert ``EdFromVP'' Green (relation) writes:
Are you also distressed by the very common misuse of
``verbally'' for ``orally''? I understand ``verbally'' to mean a
communication (either in speech or in writing) that uses
words, rather than, say, pictograms or graphs. The
semi-literate in my dog-track [place of work] use it to describe any oral
communication. I am unremitting in my efforts to root this
out. My Senate Minutes, a model of their kind, refer, say,
to ``an oral report from the Vice-Chancellor''. Are you
inclined to add this to your splendid ITS/IT'S/YOUR/YOU'RE
page?
Sunil Rao writes:
I've just taken a look at your "you're" page,after a link was posted to
the comp.lang.c newsgroup. It's great! May I suggest that you also
include a section on "definitely", which most people seem to spell as
"definatly", "definately" or "defiantly"!!!
Def... maybe!
Bert Wiest writes:
Ive just seen you're Youre page, its brilliant! Lot's of usefull hint's!
Im currently struggling to learn French. In French most verbs end with
some vaguely ``Aarg'' ore ``aeie'' sounding noise, and their about twenty
thousend different ways to spell it, only one of which is correct in
any one situation. The French seam to be coping quite well. Is their
something wrong with the English, that they cant even get they're
``their's'' right?
Dom Latter writes:
Here's my pet whinge - the butcher's quotation marks,
so-called by me because the worst offender I've seen was
a butcher's shop. It is the habit of putting quote marks
around things that don't need them. I kept wanting
to go in to the shop and point out that by advertising
``rump'' ``steak'' [sic] he was implying that it wasn't.
Also seen in my local supermarket, where a sign reads
roughly as follows: Due to the incidence of ``forged'' bank notes...
Peter Cassidy supplies another advanced guide:
It's is not, it isn't ain't, and it's it's, not its,
if you mean it is. If you don't, it's its. Then too, it's
hers. It isn't her's. It isn't our's either. It's ours, and
likewise yours and theirs. [Oxford University Press, Edpress News]
Nik Devlin gets political:
Yes. You're absolutely right. The misuse of the apostrophe should be
punishable by law.
Susan writes:
I would like to see you add a
section to your site for proper use of would
have/should have/could have/might have/must have and
their contraction forms with 've since too many people
misuse it as would of/could of/should of/might of/must
of. I know several people who regularly get this
wrong. It's bad enough when people finish high school
without knowing basic grammar skills and even worse
when they graduate from college and still can't get it
right.
Suggested by Robin ``Feynmann'' Stevens
- there
- That place.
- their
- Belonging to them.
- they're
- Short for "they are".
Suggested by Lambros Lambrou, a pianist
- whose
- Referring to a person.
- who's
- Short for "who is".
Suggested by Colin Batchelor ``Bedroom''
- to
- Unstressed word. Used as part of the verb infinite or as a
preposition.
- too
- Stressed word. Indicates an excess.
- two
- Stressed word. Successor of one.
Colin Batchelor ``Bedroom'' adds:
It always amazes me that folk confuse to and too because
one of them's
stressed and one of them isn't. [Me too - Ed.]
I reckon that that's something helpful to point out to folk.
Suggested by Robin ``Feynmann'' Stevens
- we're
- We are.
- were
- Past tense (second person and plural) and subjunctive of
to be.
Back to main page
