Those cases are not the same, because those words are already possessive in their own right.
Joel Send a noteboard - 06/10/2011 10:52:06 PM
I'm going to ignore everything apart from the bits I managed to actually read like this bit here:
Because someone is WRONG ON THE INTERNET and I feel the need to correct, obviously. It is not a rule observed in all other cases. "Its" is the same as "hers", "yours", "ours" and "theirs". Possessive pronoun. "Everyone" is an indefinite pronoun so it's different.
No, that is the ruleS. Two of them. In direct contradiction. One of them only applied to a single word. It is not the "contraction rule" or the "possessive rule," but the "it's/its" rule. Far worse, it exists, not to make the language richer, more versatile or, heaven forbid, easier to understand, but because... well, because someone said we should ignore the rule we observe in ALL OTHER CASES, and other people, for reasons known but to them and God, accepted that decision.
Because someone is WRONG ON THE INTERNET and I feel the need to correct, obviously. It is not a rule observed in all other cases. "Its" is the same as "hers", "yours", "ours" and "theirs". Possessive pronoun. "Everyone" is an indefinite pronoun so it's different.
Except for "her" (which can be a possessive pronoun OR simply the second person feminine pronoun,) each word you list is already always a possessive pronoun. Adding "s" does not signify their (already unambiguously established) possessive nature, but that they do not refer to the word immediately following them (e.g. "your car" but not "yours car," rather, "that car is yours.") That is closer to true genitive declension than the makeshift relic apostrophe+"s" represents. I cannot recall ever seeing "its" used in that way; "it" is analogous to "my" not "mine." I (and almost certainly you) would say, for example, "the governments power to print money belongs to it," not "the governments power to print money is its."
I would also like to teach you the meaning of succinct.
In the interest of full disclosure, before moondog joined wotmania he introduced me to xkcd with "Duty Calls" to illustrate his impression of my wotmania posting habits.
Around that same time someone posted a wotmania thread about the Flame Warriors site, and you can probably understand why I felt this entry hit a little close to home.
' /> Beyond that I can only reiterate one of my Pithy Pet Phrases: Few things are difficult; many are complicated.
Honorbound and honored to be Bonded to Mahtaliel Sedai
Last First in wotmania Chat
Slightly better than chocolate.
Love still can't be coerced.
Please Don't Eat the Newbies!
LoL. Be well, RAFOlk.
Last First in wotmania Chat
Slightly better than chocolate.
Love still can't be coerced.
Please Don't Eat the Newbies!

LoL. Be well, RAFOlk.
Grammar junkies
- 05/10/2011 06:46:31 PM
1146 Views
I'm not always sure that I'm correct, but....
- 05/10/2011 07:04:13 PM
841 Views
I didn't see any errors
- 05/10/2011 07:24:27 PM
825 Views
- 05/10/2011 07:24:27 PM
825 Views
Must ... have ... grammar.
- 05/10/2011 07:53:34 PM
1018 Views
For you and Tom as well, the same question about question eight.
- 05/10/2011 08:33:39 PM
1303 Views
Tom can probably give you actual terms and correct rules, but here's my take on it.
- 05/10/2011 08:43:47 PM
791 Views
Er...yes I meant them as a singular idea...
*NM*
- 05/10/2011 08:47:34 PM
474 Views
*NM*
- 05/10/2011 08:47:34 PM
474 Views
Use them together, and only together, for fifteen years and we can discuss this again. *NM*
- 05/10/2011 09:32:30 PM
406 Views
That makes sense as far as it goes.
- 05/10/2011 09:02:42 PM
827 Views
But do you actually regard them that way?
- 05/10/2011 09:08:36 PM
809 Views
Yeah, pretty much.
- 05/10/2011 09:25:18 PM
770 Views
No, Joel. You're just wrong. Again. Get used to it. We have.
- 05/10/2011 09:31:21 PM
707 Views
- 05/10/2011 09:31:21 PM
707 Views
I can live with being wrong, at least in the sense of technical error.
- 05/10/2011 10:06:30 PM
816 Views
Let's just pare this down to the bare bones.
- 06/10/2011 01:37:30 AM
664 Views
He made a mistake that I did not recognize as a mistake because I read his words as he intended.
- 06/10/2011 04:43:39 AM
818 Views
You bring up a point that I was researching the other day
- 05/10/2011 08:53:40 PM
861 Views
You guys mean a hyphen, not a dash.
- 05/10/2011 09:00:25 PM
822 Views
- 05/10/2011 09:00:25 PM
822 Views
You're right of course!
- 05/10/2011 09:13:44 PM
886 Views
I frequently am.
- 05/10/2011 09:16:38 PM
896 Views
So I've noticed.
- 05/10/2011 09:19:38 PM
806 Views
Achtung! Grammatik! :insert Nazi-saluting smiley as the Wehrmacht marches by:
- 05/10/2011 08:10:45 PM
918 Views
Good poll, especially for this site.
- 05/10/2011 08:11:10 PM
928 Views
Re: Grammar junkies
- 05/10/2011 08:33:06 PM
819 Views
People should talk in a way that can be understood, else they are not communicating.
- 05/10/2011 09:17:37 PM
867 Views
Re: "everyone's". ~winky~ *NM*
- 05/10/2011 09:22:18 PM
399 Views
Is it time for my lecture on superfluous apostrophes again?
- 05/10/2011 09:43:47 PM
777 Views
- 05/10/2011 09:43:47 PM
777 Views
Unsurprisingly, I don't really agree with you at all on this point. :p
- 05/10/2011 10:29:59 PM
863 Views
I do not really think I am "right" on this one so much as "not wrong."
- 06/10/2011 12:01:36 AM
782 Views
But contradictions are inherent in the entire English language!
- 06/10/2011 01:25:39 AM
769 Views
Ghoti. Also, this is why Rebekah and don't argue this any more.
*NM*
- 06/10/2011 04:44:42 AM
359 Views
*NM*
- 06/10/2011 04:44:42 AM
359 Views
Sure, but not deliberate ones created by grammarians who know better.
- 06/10/2011 05:40:58 AM
782 Views
I'm going to listen to the others.
- 06/10/2011 06:17:18 AM
790 Views
Like I say, I appreciate exceptions when justified (and again, only claiming to be "not wrong." )
- 06/10/2011 07:26:18 AM
681 Views
But you are wrong
- 06/10/2011 02:17:40 PM
816 Views
- 06/10/2011 02:17:40 PM
816 Views
I disagree.
- 07/10/2011 12:15:14 AM
759 Views
- 07/10/2011 12:15:14 AM
759 Views
How utterly unsurprising
- 07/10/2011 02:21:38 PM
738 Views
- 07/10/2011 02:21:38 PM
738 Views
"We want to be nothing if not persistent."
- 07/10/2011 02:39:19 PM
787 Views
Doesn't matter.
- 07/10/2011 03:12:14 PM
796 Views
Perhaps not, but it should, and I am not above being a lone voice crying in the wilderness.
- 08/10/2011 05:17:35 PM
885 Views
What.
- 06/10/2011 06:17:41 PM
864 Views
Those cases are not the same, because those words are already possessive in their own right.
- 06/10/2011 10:52:06 PM
854 Views
if you have trouble understanding my post it is more likely do to typing skills than grammar
- 05/10/2011 09:31:42 PM
767 Views
Likely so; I have the same problem, but usually when writing by hand.
- 05/10/2011 09:53:08 PM
742 Views
#1) I do not use NetSpeak while playing games, texting or using social media.
- 05/10/2011 11:34:12 PM
756 Views
What about NateSpeak? *NM*
- 06/10/2011 04:01:08 PM
368 Views
I did use that once to tell the story of you and CNRedDragon going to see Ice Princess. *NM*
- 07/10/2011 01:46:50 AM
389 Views
I freebase split infinitives on a regular basis.
- 06/10/2011 01:53:36 PM
687 Views
