If apostrophe-S is possessive, should "it's" be used when referring to an object's possessions or not?

Question

For example, which is correct:

The robot can then compute it's coordinates.

or

The robot can then compute its coordinates.

What's the rule here? It seems a little inconsistent.

The more common pronouns are exempt from using an apostrophe to denote possession, since the apostrophe is needed to denote contraction, and since the pronouns never append "s" to make a plural. — Hot Licks, Apr 07 '15 at 12:41
"Its" as a possessive is a special case, and definitely is not consistent with normal apostrophe rules. — Jeremy Nottingham, Apr 07 '15 at 12:52

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 07 '15 at 12:54

2

Apostrophe-S is used to form the possessive for nouns only.

All possessive pronouns are not apostrophized:

answered Apr 07 '15 at 12:54

Hellion

1

Most possessive pronouns are not apostrophised. One needs to be careful with one's assertions. – Edwin Ashworth Apr 07 '15 at 14:49

score -1 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 07 '15 at 12:43

-1

"it's" is a major grammatical mistake here

Use:

The robot can then compute its [own?] coordinates.

"Own" is necessary if these are robot's own coordinates.

answered Apr 07 '15 at 12:43

Marius Hancu

2 Answers2