www.betteratenglish.com/grammar-mistakes-that-make-you-look-like-a-dork-its-vs-its -> www.betteratenglish.com/grammar-mistakes-that-make-you-look-like-a-dork-its-vs-its/
Download dorks Transcript Hi and welcome to the first grammar edition of the Better At English Podcast. Lori here, comin' atcha from the humble B@E studios here in southern Sweden. Usually I focus on vocabulary and conversational English in these podcasts. But even if you've got an impressive vocabulary and are an amazing conversationalist, you'll still look like a total dork if you make careless grammar mistakes in your writing.
dork definition Some grammar mistakes are surprisingly frequent even among educated native speakers of English. When it comes to written English, a lot of these mistakes involve words or phrases that sound the same but are spelled differently. Usually these mistakes are obvious when someone points them out to you, but when you are busy focusing on what you're trying to say rather than worrying about grammatical accuracy, it's easy to let the sound you hear in your head trick you into writing the wrong form. Unfortunately, if you make this kind of mistake, you run the risk of making a really bad impression with your writing. But luckily, some of these mistakes are really easy to fix if you just know what to look for. One of the most notorious of these grammatical pet peeves is when people write the wrong form of its/it's. This may be a bit difficult to follow if you are just listening, so I suggest you go to the website and have a look at the transcript. it's: avoiding dorky grammar mistakes Its/it's has two forms. One form has an apostrophe, spelled I-T-apostrophe-S, and is a contraction of it is or it has. Here are some examples: 1) Sweden is famous for its social welfare system and hot blonde chicks. Neither of those sentences would make sense if you replaced its with it is or it has. Luckily, when you are speaking nobody can hear whether or not your brain is putting in apostrophes where they don't belong. Here is how you can avoid writing the wrong form of its/it's when you have an important piece of writing where you cannot possibly afford to look like a dork. When you write, ask yourself if the it's/its you're about to write means it is or it has. If it does, then you can use the it's form WITH an apostrophe. If it doesn't make sense, then you need the its form WITHOUT an apostrophe. Here's an example: Sweden is famous for its social welfare. Can you say, "Sweden is famous for it is social welfare" or "Sweden is famous for it has social welfare"? Nope, it doesn't work, so you know you need its with NO apostrophe. If you are still confused, then try replacing the its/it's with another pronoun: his, her, or their. If one of those make sense grammar-wise, then you need its with NO apostrophe. Here's an example: Volvo is famous for its boxy-but-safe design. You can try "Volvo is famous for their boxy-but-safe design." For each instance you find, perform the it is / it has test or the his-her-their pronoun test. If you take the time to do this, you will never risk turning in piece of writing containing this dorky grammar mistake. It's been a lot of fun making this first grammar podcast for you. I hope you'll find it useful for avoiding the dorky its/it's mistake. Before I sign off, just a little update on the two favors I asked of you in the last episode. Thanks to all who have recommended your favorite English books -- I really appreciate your input! If you still haven't made a recommendation, it's not too late. I'll be collecting suggestions for another week or so, and then summarize them on the website. I had also asked you how you would feel about mild swearing in these podcasts. So far only one person has told me that it wouldn't be a good idea. To make it easier for you to have your say, I've put a poll up in the sidebar of the website at Better At English dot com. If you have any positive or negative feelings about mild profanity or swear words in these podcasts, please take the time to let me know.
It's a 20-minute weekly vocabulary podcast that teaches a handful of advanced vocabulary words each week. It's aimed mainly at native speakers, but would be good for upper-intermediate to advanced learners of English as well.
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Kristof on November 7th, 2006 12:52 I often make that mistake because of the electric current in my brain sometimes taking the wrong exit ... I know the difference, however, I often confuse "it's" and "its" while writing simply because it's looks so much like a possessive thingy! See, I know how it works, I just don't always get it right while typing things in a hurry. Somehow, it's looks good because I also write Kristof's or Lori's. It's rather similar to the "you're" and "your" mistakes I sometimes make. I know how it's supposed to be written, I just sometimes confuse them because they sound the same.
Lori on November 7th, 2006 13:09 You're/your not alone, Kristof. I find that my mistake is adding apostrophes/apostrophe's where they are not warranted, rather than leaving out apostrophes that should be there. There's/theirs probably at least one study that has researched this, but I'm too/to/two busy to take time to do any serious research at the moment.
I think (read: hope) that people are pretty tolerant about careless mistakes in quick'n'dirty communication such as rapid-fire email conversations. But if you're writing something where accuracy counts, it's/its a good idea to proofread for/four the errors that you know you tend to make. In grade school you basically fry your brain to learn phonics and then again to learn to spell all the words that voilate them. But then, I occasionally leave out big words like "existance".
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