Slip-ups: Possessive vs plural
Let's round off our lessons on the use of the apostrophe -s ('s) by recalling some of the things we have said.
- The possessive pronouns yours, his, hers, theirs, ours and its DO NOT carry the apostrophe anywhere at all.
That means the words your's, yours', her's, hers', their's, theirs', our's, ours' and it's (used as possessive) DO NOT exist in English.
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So don't write things such as:
Your's sincerely/faithfully/dearly/etc,
Yours' sincerely/faithfully/ dearly/etc,
.....that one is our's
......that one is ours'
The books are her's
The books are hers'
Note that while ITS is possessive and used to indicate that something belongs to it, IT'S is not possessive at all.
IT'S is the contracted form of IT IS and should never be used as a possessive pronoun.
You should write: IT'S (IT IS) time to go home. NOT ITS time to go home.
You should write: The cat is sad because ITS owner is dead.
NOT The cat is sad because IT'S owner is dead.
Talking about the apostrophe, note that the words LETS and LET'S are not the same at all. LETS, a verb, is in the third person singular and means ALLOWS, as in:
The man LETS us use his piano for practice.
LET'S, on the other hand, is the contracted form of LET US. as in:
LET'S (LET US) learn to respect our elders. It's getting late; LET'S go home.
