Remember how I mentioned on Tuesday that the finer points of grammar are often a matter of personal style? Well, not today. The mistakes I’ll be pointing out in the “Oops” series are pretty much indisputable wrongs, which can make a manuscript look slap-dash and unprofessional.
The mix up between possessives (its, your, their, whose) and their homophonic contractions (it’s, you’re, they’re, who’s) stands out to an experienced reader like pasta stains on the page. Fortunately, though these pairs result in some of the most common mistakes, they are also easily corrected.
The basics:
A. “its” = third-person singular gender-neutral possessive adjective. Don’t worry about the terminology. That’s a grammar-nerd way of saying “its” should be used like this:
I would have bought the green convertible, but its windshield was cracked and its tires were worn.
it’s= a contraction for “it is” or “it has”. It gets used like this:
I wanted to buy the green convertible, but it’s pretty dilapidated and according to the title, it’s been in an accident.
B. “your” = second-person singular or plural possessive adjective:
Get your ugly mug out of my bar.
“you’re” = a contraction for “you are”:
If you don’t get out of my bar, you’re going to be sorry.
C. “their” = third-person plural possessive adjective:
The dragons soared our across the ocean, the setting sun flashed off their metallic wings.
“they’re” = a contraction for “they are”:
“They’re not coming back,” she sighed as their flashing silhouettes receded.
[To add more oops to the mix, there is the adverb “there” to deal with.]
D. “whose” = interrogative possessive adjective:
Whose bagpipes are these?
“who’s” = contraction for “who is” or “who has”:
Who’s going to the Highlander festival? Who’s been there before?
Simple, right? Try it out with a few excerpts from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (my current reading material).
1. “Hello, Kalle Blomkvist,” she said to herself. “(Your/You’re) pretty pleased with yourself, aren’t you?”
2. “(Its/It’s) all I can spare. (Its/It’s) my own money, and I can’t really deduct you as a dependent.”
3. Vanger smiled. “As to (your/you’re) career, we might agree that for the moment (its/it’s) somewhat on hold.
4. She had postponed (their/they’re/there) most recent scheduled meeting with the excuse that she had to work, and a vague sense of uneasiness gnawed at him.
5. “So (your/you’re) full of hope that you can somehow recover (your/you’re) power over me right away. Am I right?”
6. “I want you to do (your/you’re) damnedest to identify as many as you can and see to it that (their/they’re/there) families receive suitable compensation….”
I know it’s too much to hope for that chat rooms and text messages will ever be free of such errors (especially when “ur” stands in for both “your” and “you’re”). However, we can hope that fewer essays and manuscripts come across our desks suffering from such obvious mistakes.
Editing and Writing Resources 