‘Uni’ for university is the Australianism that bugs me most. I blame Neighbours and Home and Away.
Yeah, with apostrophes disappearing so rapidly these days, I don’t get all that het up about incorrect insertion of one that actually should be there. On the other hand, I suppose “her’s” really WOULD bother me…
The hell of it is, apostrophe-S means possessive in–I think–every other instance in the English language. But not when applied to “it.”
If you were taught the rule, and you weren’t absent from class that day, and you actually learned it, and you didn’t go to 6 different elementary schools [ahem–raises hand] and you learned the curriculum in order with no gaps, then the rule actually makes a lot of sense.
But if not, it might not register with you until you are an adult and realize “Hey, I never actually learned this, I need to figure this out.” So, I don’t front on people over it. Also, in my usage, contraction it's
is used hundreds of times more than possessive its
, so it’s a really easy typo to make instinctively.
tl;dr I view it as yet another flaw with the English language rather than the person.
His, her, our and their don’t have an apostrophe either, but it’s less confusing as most don’t have a final s and hi’s looks weird.
Personally though, English is idiosyncratic enough that possessive it’s wouldn’t get on my nerves too much. I do draw the line at the greengrocer’s apostrophe, even if it is standard in Dutch.
It’s a very easy typo and especially a very easy auto-correct to make.
But the ‘rule’ is pretty simple:
“It’s” is a contraction for “it is”. If you’d say “it is” in a sentence, you’re good. If not, it’s “its”.
exactly. and conversely, as @jsroberts notes, you can think of it as “his, her, their” etc are the possessive forms, so likewise, “its” is correct for possessive-without-an-apostrophe in the same way. the confusion is due to English using apostrophe-S for all the other possessives
but yeah, once the protocol is explained it’s easy.
Bad news - while there’s the ocasional Neighbours/Home and Away phrase that’s isolated to a particular suburb/subculture (south eastern suburbs of Melb for Neighbours; NSW coast south of Sydney for Home and Away), “uni” is close to universal. It trancends geography and economics.
Don’t fight it. Your kids will be saying it soon.
Nah she’s run the numbers, and said, “fuck that”.
She’ll never get a job in a pub in London then, at least while the Public House Employment (Neighbours and Home and Away Amendment) Act 1989 is on the books.
(edited for spelling)
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