Contractions and Possessives

One of the most annoying types of illiteracies promulgated in recent years exhibits a complete lack of understanding of the difference between contractions and possessives, most manifest in such written misspellings or misusages as "Who's book was it?" or "It's her's," or "Your welcome." (Ms. Picky cannot help but cringe even as she repeats the offensive misuses.) These errors are nothing less than mileposts on the road to the slow decay of the English language. Unfortunately, those who commit them are often journalists--who should know better. That fact only serves to illustrate that we are truly in language crisis.

It is unlikely that one would consciously make such mistakes. Nevertheless, sometimes (shall we blame it on autotype or spell-check?), mistakes are made. Such errors not only offend our sensibilities but also demean some otherwise-noble thoughts.

Ms. Picky understands that, in one's busy life, what with learning new software, coping with old hardware, picking up the children, social networking, and certifying unemployment, it is sometimes difficult to remember the defenses one learned in grade school for correct word formations. Here, then, as a reminder of what is probably still somewhere in your mind, but perhaps buried under years of other important detritus, is what you used to know quite well:


Contractions are a way of joining two words together in a sort of verbal shorthand, with an apostrophe used to represent missing letters, whereas . . . 

Possessive pronouns, of course, denote ownership.

Should anyone still have any doubt as to whether the word called for in a particular situation might be a possessive pronoun or a contraction, one test is to try to separate the conjoined words. Contractions can be separated, while possessives, since they are not conjoined words to begin with, cannot.

Contractions

You're (You are)

It's (It is)

They're (They are)

Who's (Who is)

Examples:

You’re the one who should know.

It’s getting late.

They’re almost ready.

Who’s ready for dessert?

Possessive Pronouns

My, mine, our, ours

Your, yours

His, hers, its, their, theirs

Whose

Examples:

The book is ours.

The jacket is hers.

Its cover is blue.

Their preference is a cruise up the Nile.

Whose house is it?

Next Week's Post: Between and Among