I had a cryptic comment by lisa@example.com on a post I made “Out of the Mouths of Babes”.

“Sentence beginning “Taking our initial example” - it should ‘its’, not ‘it’s’ to indicate the possessive. Amongst other things.

I duly bashed an email off to Lisa thanking her for her comments and asking what the “Amongst other things.” represented.

No reply.

Upon reviewing what Lisa had to say she is entirely correct, I used the wrong “IT” - place me up against a wall and shoot me.

Upon reviewing Lisa’s own command of the English language, she certainly is not correct which may also go some way to explaining the lack of manners. I can happily refer Lisa to the posting itself which dealt with sentences and the requirements which include being able to make sense standing on their own in isolation. “Amongst other things.” does not qualify in my opinion.

As for manners, personally I blame the parents.

Nevertheless, I got something wrong and no matter my pique at how the crit has been delivered, I can ignore the slings and arrows and make sure I learn from the mistake and correct it for future use.

So a word called IT.

When you use the word “it” there must be a word to which the “it” refers back to and for which there can be no confusion or doubts as to that word.

For this reason, do not start a sentence with the word “it” e.g. “It was announced that a fund was established for the church roof repairs.” In this case, what was announced, what or who is doing the announcing? “It” serve no purpose in this context and a better construction would be “There was an announcement concerning the establishment of a fund for the church roof repairs.”

“It being” is considered to be bad form, grammatically incorrect and ugly so for instance “In spite of it being painful.” is better stated as “In spite of its being painful.”

It’s is a contraction of “it is” or “it has” and Supaproofread has a section on this which deals with other common writing errors and is well worth looking at too.

“Its” can be used subjectively and objectively. When you use “its” you must again ensure that there is no doubt as to the word it refers back to - “The steering of my car.” can be exchanged with “The car’s steering.” or “Its steering.” but in no way can we do this when we talk of “The control of the car.” and “The car’s control.” and “Its control.” - are you referring back to the car or the control? It’s A fine line exists.

For such a small word, “it” clearly requires a degree of control and understanding in excess of that I have considered before beyond getting”it’s”, and “its” unconfused. Who says big things cannot come in small packages?

-1 for shirtiness Lisa but +1,000,000 for getting me stirred up to look at this more closely

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