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During my formative years, I had access to many older publications and learned, or thought I did, that its' is the proper way to indicate possession. Thus:

"Speaking of this boat, its' hull needs patching up."

I am reading, mostly in current grammar blogs, that this form is absolutely incorrect. I am perplexed. For many years I have thought it was the opposite. I do not mind being wrong, so I thought I would ask.

drew..
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  • See related threads, Why is there a distinction between “its” and “it's”? and Why doesn't “its” have an apostrophe? – Kyle Jan 03 '16 at 05:53
  • See http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-lesson-possessive-adjectives.php - Tabels of personal pronouns, possessive adjectives (my, your, his etc), possessive pronouns (mine, yours) etc. -http://www.elearnenglishlanguage.com/blog/english-mistakes/its/ – rogermue Jan 03 '16 at 07:14
  • There's also Is its' a word which may answer this question. The valid examples are interesting, but correct use is extremely limited. – Andrew Leach Jan 03 '16 at 10:06
  • A form its' does not exist. I guess it's a spelling by people with total lack of grammar knowledge. – rogermue Jan 03 '16 at 10:38
  • Thanks friends.. thanks for the general links, but they were not addressing the issue I posted about. @Andrew, thank you, your link was perfect. It corroborated my thoughts as to [its'] being perfectly correct in a more articulate age of writing. As a possessive pronoun, it works perfectly.

    Language is never black and white, is always evolving, and as such tends to allow for non-stop confusion.

    A brief note in case the site's coders are watching: your packaging of the search term(s) into a safe string results in the stripping of the searched-for apostrophe and hinders searches such as mine.

     – drew.. Jan 03 '16 at 15:56
  • "its' " may be a typo for it's. – rogermue Jan 03 '16 at 17:07
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    @drew.. Actually the question linked shows that its' is not generally correct. Its' is only correct in very limited circumstances which are specialised and highly unlikely to occur, and to all intents and purposes that version of the word should never be used. Certainly your example sentence is absolutely incorrect. – Andrew Leach Jan 03 '16 at 18:57
  • @Andrew.. frankly, the idea that something in language is "absolutely incorrect" is arguable as all language is fluid and adapts with time and usage. Most replies within similar threads are quick blurbs from a contemporary domain and don't look further back in time, as my original post implies. The post by Mark is the corroborative element I referred to.

    I have no desire to revive the word, but encountered a real-life situation where somebody rudely tossed into a meeting how utterly wrong the word was, and i came here simply looking to understand if that position was correct.

     – drew.. Jan 04 '16 at 14:41

1 Answers1

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It's is a contraction. The full form is it is.

Its is ONE WORD, a possessive form of it.

Its hull needs patching up.

No apostrophe.

You can't say "It is hull needs patching up," can you.

Ricky
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    Hi, Ricky, just a heads-up. The OP seems to be asking about its' (apostrophe after s) , not its or it's. –  Jan 03 '16 at 06:31
  • @Rathony: What can I tell you. Let him or her slap me with a downvote. – Ricky Jan 03 '16 at 06:35
  • If i had the ability to down-vote, i would, but until that time, i'd gently suggest to Ricky that you misread my post. – drew.. Jan 03 '16 at 15:04