May I, dare I, presume to correct some of my fellow contributors? I was brought up at a time when bad spelling or misuse of words brought about a sharp rap on the knuckles. This one was my primary school teacher's particular bete noire.
It's with an apostrophe means 'IT IS'. It does not indicate a possessive. It's the one exception (see what I did there?).
Its without the apostrophe does indicate the possessive 'the car finished up on its roof' is right.
Probably shouldn't identify worst offenders, so I won't. You know who you are....
"May I, dare I, presume to correct some of my fellow contributors?"
you may, though I can't see it going down to well, and quite rightly so.
As long as a post is legible I think we should let grammar and spelling slide a smidgen, most posts are easy enough to read without getting all snotty over incidentals.
Sorry I don't agree Boo - what is the point of learning English in school if we don't follow the rules. Would you say the same about maths? + and - do matter as do X and Y. We need to learn the basic rules.
I agree Maggie, but we don't know whether the wrong usage on a forum such as this is down to spelling errors or simply not knowing or typing in a rush etc etc.
In the grand scheme of things, on a forum, is it important?
The difference is that rules of English are often really more like guidelines. Jane Austen uses "your's" and "it's" in the possessive case. A hundred years from now the rules may change again. These things aren't absolute so people should be careful not to enforce them too vigorously.
I'm pleased you choose not to identify the worst offenders, SJP.... a list of names wouldn't add much to the site.
Perhaps they haven't had the benefit of your good education and rapped knuckles.... and for you to name them on a public forum for something like that would be more than a little pompous.
I think it's presumptuous to correct people when you don't know their standard of literacy. I recall someone who has posted on this very thread correcting my use of 'it's' ( which was a typo not an bone fide error) and in doing so *** up his own post grammatically- oh how I laughed ;/