On Thu, 06 Jun 2013 18:36:18 -0400, Warp wrote:

> Orchid Win7 v1 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> OK. Now explain "there" instead of "their"
> 
> Some people write "your" when they really mean "you're". This mistake is
> kind of understandable.

Not really.  If you know that "you're" is a contraction of "you are", 
it's very easy to see when it's being misused:

"I think your wrong."

"I think *you are* wrong."

The error is clear as day - you're making a contraction and not using the 
punctuation that's necessary in a contraction.

> However, I have seen people consistently write "you're" when they really
> mean "your". *That* mistake I have hard time comprehending.

The one that is understandable, I think, is "its" - the possessive form 
of "it".  There is no possessive form of "it" that has an apostrophe in 
it, but most other nouns are made possessive by adding an apostrophe:

"John's truck broke down."

"The flywheel's spring broke."

"Everybody's wrong about this."

"The firefighters' truck drifted around the corner."

(The latter being possessive plural)

But "its" is possessive and "it's" is /only/ ever a contraction of "it 
is".

Jim

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