Important notice from the GRAMMAR POLICE. Plz read. This means you.
Jack Rudd:
Grammar Cat is ready to answer your questions:
Midwing:
Bugger, contraction, yes. At least a conjunction is a grammatical element, to lessen the pwn of my epic fail. Noted.
Indeed Roflganger, I knew only one answer could be the correct answer; it was knowing who to trust between an English teacher and a grammar Nazi that I was unsure of. In this case, both parties were wrong since "the dog and it's bone" and "the dog and its' bone" are both incorrect. I knew you would not fail me, MATY. You did not disappoint.
However, it was this post of yours which stumped me. Perhaps I misunderstood your intention - my brain has a habit of malfunctioning on me at times, resulting in mindfuck.
CheritaChen:
Quote from: Midwing on 2009 July 23, 22:38:55
Indeed Roflganger, I knew only one answer could be the correct answer; it was knowing who to trust between an English teacher and a grammar Nazi that I was unsure of. In this case, both parties were wrong since "the dog and it's bone" and "the dog and its' bone" are both incorrect.
I know I shouldn't be so surprised that an "English teacher" (quotes intentional) would promote either one of these idiocies, but alas. Are there any higher-ups to whom you might recommend some corrective action to keep this so-called teacher from infecting others with his/her stupidity?
Quote
However, it was this post of yours which stumped me.
Look more closely. Roflganger was striking through an extraneous apostrophe. See that little line underneath the apostrophe in red? That's because strikethrough style doesn't know to hop up to where the apostrophe normally lives. It just puts its line somewhere in the middle of where lowercase glyphs are aligned.
Midwing:
Better to have questioned my own understanding of grammar before I questioned somebody else's.
I am sure it would be within my power to forward such matters to a person of higher authority but being as quality of education has never been a primary concern for that particular school, I doubt it would be well received. There was more than one occasion where students had to correct teachers, not to mention that I'm hardly a favourite of the current headteacher. (Apparently I am not within my rights to object to being placed in a GCSE English Language class barely weeks away from the exam to be taught how to use a full stop correctly in a sentence alongside lesser beings who needed this instruction.)
Also, I appreciate your clarification. I'd mistaken the strikethrough for an exclamation mark and naïvely assumed that the apostrophe had been added.
rohina:
The rule you want to think about here is the rule that says possessive pronouns don't take apostrophes while possessive nouns do.
"The boy's dog becomes "his dog", and not "hi's dog".
"The book is the girl's" becomes "the book is hers" not "the book is her's".
"That plate belongs to me and the other one belongs to you" becomes "This is mine; that is yours" not "This is mine; that is your's".
Thus, possessive pronouns are as follows:
mine
yours
his, hers, its
ours
yours (again, for the plural)
theirs
None of them take an apostrophe.
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