Page 53 - Perfect English Grammar: The Indispensable Guide to Excellent Writing and Speaking

■ ■ Wrong: ladie’s night Right: ladies’ night Possessive pronouns (see
section 10.0, Pronouns) never take an apostrophe.

■ ■ hers his

■ its

■ ■ ■ ■ ours theirs whose yours

4.7.1 ITS VERSUS IT’S

Its versus it’s is a confusing possessive pronoun, because it looks so much like

the contraction it’s.

The best way to decide which word to use is to ask yourself, if I replace
its/it’s with “it is” or “it has,” does the sentence still make sense? If so, then use

it’s. If not, then use its.

■ Wrong: dog can’t catch it’s tail.

■ Right: It’s a long way to Tipperary. It’s been a pleasure speaking with
you.

4.8 Dates

In the United States, dates are formatted a little differently than in the rest of the

world. Typically, the United States puts it as month-day-year, like so: July 4,

1776, or 7/4/1776
■ March 19, 2007, or 3/19/2007

■ May 17, 1954, or 5/17/1954

In the rest of the world, you are far more likely to see basic dates written as

■day-month-year: 4 July 1776, or 4/7/1776
■ 19 March 2007, or 19/3/2007

■ 17 May 1954, or 17/5/1954

If you regularly encounter both ways of writing the date, it’s easy to get