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Comment by itp | Hacker News Reader

I appreciate why the title was modified from the original, but the mistaken use of "it's" rather than "its" was introduced in the process and should be corrected.

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(I've done so.)

There’s a trivial way for native English speakers to learn this rule: replace ‘it’ with ‘his’, appropriately, adjust comma to suit.

> Amazon has ceded control of hi’s site to a 3rd party...

Obviously incorrect.

> There’s a trivial way for native English speakers to learn this rule: replace ‘it’ with ‘his’, appropriately, adjust comma to suit.

I prefer the handy jingle, "If it's supposed to be possessive, it's just i-t-s, if it's supposed to be a contraction it's i-t-apostrophe-s. Scalawag."

How did you type that message with boxing gloves on?

It's an apostrophe, not a comma, and unfortunately that won't work in the case where it should be "it's", like at the start of this sentence, but yes. "It's" only ever means "it is" or "it has". </pedantic>

What if he actually is an apostrophe?

Disregarding the semantic absurdity (and the e/i mismatch), the rule works fine: "his an apostrophe" should look a lot more wrong to anyone with enough understanding of English that its/it's mistakes make a difference than "he's an apostrophe".

"He's" also only ever means "he is" or "he has", just like "it's". That's the entire point of this little memory aid.

When does "hi's" ever look correct though?

That's the point!

His arrival elicited a number of hi's.

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