Those cases are not the same, because those words are already possessive in their own right.
Joel Send a noteboard - 06/10/2011 10:52:06 PM
I'm going to ignore everything apart from the bits I managed to actually read like this bit here:
Because someone is WRONG ON THE INTERNET and I feel the need to correct, obviously. It is not a rule observed in all other cases. "Its" is the same as "hers", "yours", "ours" and "theirs". Possessive pronoun. "Everyone" is an indefinite pronoun so it's different.
No, that is the ruleS. Two of them. In direct contradiction. One of them only applied to a single word. It is not the "contraction rule" or the "possessive rule," but the "it's/its" rule. Far worse, it exists, not to make the language richer, more versatile or, heaven forbid, easier to understand, but because... well, because someone said we should ignore the rule we observe in ALL OTHER CASES, and other people, for reasons known but to them and God, accepted that decision.
Because someone is WRONG ON THE INTERNET and I feel the need to correct, obviously. It is not a rule observed in all other cases. "Its" is the same as "hers", "yours", "ours" and "theirs". Possessive pronoun. "Everyone" is an indefinite pronoun so it's different.
Except for "her" (which can be a possessive pronoun OR simply the second person feminine pronoun,) each word you list is already always a possessive pronoun. Adding "s" does not signify their (already unambiguously established) possessive nature, but that they do not refer to the word immediately following them (e.g. "your car" but not "yours car," rather, "that car is yours.") That is closer to true genitive declension than the makeshift relic apostrophe+"s" represents. I cannot recall ever seeing "its" used in that way; "it" is analogous to "my" not "mine." I (and almost certainly you) would say, for example, "the governments power to print money belongs to it," not "the governments power to print money is its."
I would also like to teach you the meaning of succinct.
In the interest of full disclosure, before moondog joined wotmania he introduced me to xkcd with "Duty Calls" to illustrate his impression of my wotmania posting habits.


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Last First in wotmania Chat
Slightly better than chocolate.
Love still can't be coerced.
Please Don't Eat the Newbies!

LoL. Be well, RAFOlk.
Grammar junkies
05/10/2011 06:46:31 PM
- 1080 Views
I'm not always sure that I'm correct, but....
05/10/2011 07:04:13 PM
- 776 Views
I didn't see any errors
05/10/2011 07:24:27 PM
- 758 Views

Must ... have ... grammar.
05/10/2011 07:53:34 PM
- 946 Views
For you and Tom as well, the same question about question eight.
05/10/2011 08:33:39 PM
- 1211 Views
Tom can probably give you actual terms and correct rules, but here's my take on it.
05/10/2011 08:43:47 PM
- 715 Views
Er...yes I meant them as a singular idea...
*NM*
05/10/2011 08:47:34 PM
- 449 Views

Use them together, and only together, for fifteen years and we can discuss this again. *NM*
05/10/2011 09:32:30 PM
- 380 Views
That makes sense as far as it goes.
05/10/2011 09:02:42 PM
- 752 Views
But do you actually regard them that way?
05/10/2011 09:08:36 PM
- 749 Views
Yeah, pretty much.
05/10/2011 09:25:18 PM
- 708 Views
No, Joel. You're just wrong. Again. Get used to it. We have.
05/10/2011 09:31:21 PM
- 651 Views

I can live with being wrong, at least in the sense of technical error.
05/10/2011 10:06:30 PM
- 744 Views
Let's just pare this down to the bare bones.
06/10/2011 01:37:30 AM
- 606 Views
He made a mistake that I did not recognize as a mistake because I read his words as he intended.
06/10/2011 04:43:39 AM
- 750 Views
You bring up a point that I was researching the other day
05/10/2011 08:53:40 PM
- 798 Views
You guys mean a hyphen, not a dash.
05/10/2011 09:00:25 PM
- 731 Views

You're right of course!
05/10/2011 09:13:44 PM
- 812 Views
I frequently am.
05/10/2011 09:16:38 PM
- 810 Views
So I've noticed.
05/10/2011 09:19:38 PM
- 721 Views
Achtung! Grammatik! :insert Nazi-saluting smiley as the Wehrmacht marches by:
05/10/2011 08:10:45 PM
- 847 Views
Good poll, especially for this site.
05/10/2011 08:11:10 PM
- 846 Views
Re: Grammar junkies
05/10/2011 08:33:06 PM
- 740 Views
People should talk in a way that can be understood, else they are not communicating.
05/10/2011 09:17:37 PM
- 787 Views
Re: "everyone's". ~winky~ *NM*
05/10/2011 09:22:18 PM
- 366 Views
Is it time for my lecture on superfluous apostrophes again?
05/10/2011 09:43:47 PM
- 691 Views

Unsurprisingly, I don't really agree with you at all on this point. :p
05/10/2011 10:29:59 PM
- 772 Views
I do not really think I am "right" on this one so much as "not wrong."
06/10/2011 12:01:36 AM
- 677 Views
But contradictions are inherent in the entire English language!
06/10/2011 01:25:39 AM
- 697 Views
Ghoti. Also, this is why Rebekah and don't argue this any more.
*NM*
06/10/2011 04:44:42 AM
- 325 Views

Sure, but not deliberate ones created by grammarians who know better.
06/10/2011 05:40:58 AM
- 704 Views
I'm going to listen to the others.
06/10/2011 06:17:18 AM
- 720 Views
Like I say, I appreciate exceptions when justified (and again, only claiming to be "not wrong." )
06/10/2011 07:26:18 AM
- 614 Views
But you are wrong
06/10/2011 02:17:40 PM
- 745 Views

I disagree.
07/10/2011 12:15:14 AM
- 688 Views

How utterly unsurprising
07/10/2011 02:21:38 PM
- 640 Views

"We want to be nothing if not persistent."
07/10/2011 02:39:19 PM
- 702 Views
Doesn't matter.
07/10/2011 03:12:14 PM
- 728 Views
Perhaps not, but it should, and I am not above being a lone voice crying in the wilderness.
08/10/2011 05:17:35 PM
- 793 Views
What.
06/10/2011 06:17:41 PM
- 786 Views
Those cases are not the same, because those words are already possessive in their own right.
06/10/2011 10:52:06 PM
- 781 Views
if you have trouble understanding my post it is more likely do to typing skills than grammar
05/10/2011 09:31:42 PM
- 699 Views
Likely so; I have the same problem, but usually when writing by hand.
05/10/2011 09:53:08 PM
- 679 Views
#1) I do not use NetSpeak while playing games, texting or using social media.
05/10/2011 11:34:12 PM
- 696 Views
What about NateSpeak? *NM*
06/10/2011 04:01:08 PM
- 341 Views
I did use that once to tell the story of you and CNRedDragon going to see Ice Princess. *NM*
07/10/2011 01:46:50 AM
- 340 Views
I freebase split infinitives on a regular basis.
06/10/2011 01:53:36 PM
- 624 Views