it's and its

[Henry Vandelinde <vandelinde -at- WORDTEK -dot- ON -dot- CA>]

I also teach English at a Canadian university, and the 'its' and 'it's'
confusion drives me around the bend.  I had an undergraduate prof who would
take 5 points from one's paper every time the mistake was made.  Many
people ended up owing him marks but  they also learned the difference in a
short time.

The etymolocial difference lies in the development of the genetive.  Nouns
originally showed the possessive by forming the '-es' suffix.  However,
with the eventual drop of the non-stressed '-e' (also known as the schwa)
in the spoken language, the written followed suit, dropping the '-e' and
showed its loss with the apostrophe.

The third-person neuter pronoun, however, was already formed with  the
final '-s,' deriving from a combination of its earlier form of  'hit' in
the nominative and accusative, and 'his' in the genetive.  There was never
a schwa to take out so there was/is no need for the apostrophe.

Ain't it fun
=================================================
Dr. Henry Vandelinde, WordTek Document Services Inc.
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