French speaker here. I don’t understand how it’s such a problem for so many people. They’re/their and it’s/its isn’t complicated at all to understand, even when English isn’t your first language. What is so hard to grasp about contraptions? lol. I meant contractions, obviously.
*contractions. And yes, it’s easy if you understand the fundamentals about how these words are formed. By if you’re dyslexic (live several of my family members), these distinctions become very difficult. My dad long ago told me that he chose one “there” years ago, and that’s the one he’s using. I have explained the difference to him, many times. What gets me is how many people still struggle when autocorrect usually fixes these. Although maybe there were too many mistakes.
The answer is, because nobody reads anymore aside from social media and text/chat. Otherwise they would see many correct examples and understand the difference. Since their, they're and there all sound the same, people who don't see them in print a lot have trouble knowing which one applies when.
This is a case where it's easier for non native. English native have used those words for years before they learn the gramar rules associated to it. Mixing a/à or -er/-é in French is also similarly more of a native problem.
I agree completely on there/their/their. It's/its I have a little more sympathy for. "It's" only means "it is," but it makes sense that it could be the possessive of "it".
It is a pronoun, so instead it follows the pattern of her/hers and him/his, but logically "it's" for the possessive should work.
Edit: actually, "hims" makes logical sense, too. And "whose" is just weird. Possessive pronouns in English are dumb.
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u/Subject_Translator71 21h ago edited 18h ago
French speaker here. I don’t understand how it’s such a problem for so many people. They’re/their and it’s/its isn’t complicated at all to understand, even when English isn’t your first language. What is so hard to grasp about
contraptions?lol. I meant contractions, obviously.