All Night Laundry - In which you just have to press down hard - 2019 12 19

Pedantry:

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An apostrophe in English always indicates that something has been omitted (a contraction). For example "isn't" is a contraction of "is not." "It's" is a contraction of "it is." The apostrophe+s possessive such as "Charlie's" is a contraction of an archaic form that has not been used in centuries: "Charlie his". Mind thou usest caution around Charlie his ill-tempered horse. What's weird is that we apply the same ending to feminine nouns: Shouldn't "Bina her scarf" be contracted to "Bina'r scarf"? But no. It's still "Bina's" which implies "Bina his" which is just one of those mysteries of the language. (Unless it is the predicate of the sentence, as in "That scarf is Bina's" (Bina hers) ... because her/hers changes form depending on whether it is subject or object. The other two (his, its) don't do that.) We can even talk about the scarf's (the scarf its) properties if we want to. Anyway, this all means that the possessive pronouns (his, hers, its) have never been apostrophised because they existed BEFORE apostrophe+s even became a thing - and they are, in fact, the missing portion implied by the apostrophe in the modern possessive form.

You know, had my school taught me that rather than just saying "that's how it works" I might have had an easier time memorizing when I should and shouldn't put an apostrophe in "its."