Submitted by John
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I would respectfully submit that technically the apostrophe is correct here.
“America” is singular and “it’s” is singular possessive.
And I would respectfully submit that, technically speaking, you have just FAILED. And hard…
“It’s” is ALWAYS a contraction of “it is”. The possessive form of “it” will always be “its” (without the apostrophe).
Therefore, the only meaning that can be taken from the offending sentence is:
“Where America takes IT IS pictures.”
or contraction of “it has,” as in “it’s been a long time.”
Thank you, John! I neglected the past tense!
but to be fair, since most possessives use the apostrophe, it can be confusing that “its” and “whose” do not…but that being said, it was the first thing i noticed.
Logically, that would make sense. But that’s not the case.
It’s no wonder people complain about English being so hard to learn!
(I would also question the correctness of the Walgreens name. I’m assuming it was named after someone named Walgreen… which means it should be “Walgreen’s”. Unless a “walgreen” is a thing and they used to sell lots of them…)
Yeah, I wasn’t sure when submitting this whether it should be “Apostrophes Fail” or “Apostrophe Fails”.
Of course, use of ‘fail’ as a noun is itself a barbarism (another type of English fail), so I’m not sure these concerns apply.
I wonder if they made that sign on their own photo printer.
adnoxious.blogspot.com
Taking aim at lousy advertising
Wow – I totally learned something new today. NEVER knew that.
If you want to learn more, I recommend “Eats, Shoots & Leaves”. Of many style & grammar guides, it is the most entertaining. It even comes with a sheet of correction stickers so you can post your mockery IRL, not just on the interwebs.
I don’t think people will ever learn the difference between its and it’s
Except for the readers of this blog, of course
I would respectfully re-submit that English has very few rules that ALWAYS apply, and “it’s” can mean both “it is” and the possessive form of “is”
I’m a first year college student and I can figure that out.
@dylan
NO! It’s is ALWAYS it is. It works the same way as you’re. You’re is ALWAYS you are, and your is always the possessive you. There always is the location, and THEIR is always the posessive. I am in HIGH SCHOOL and I can figure that out!
@Brett
Well.. I made a bit of a mistake. There can also be used in a context such as: There were seven bananas on the table” However, THEIR can never be used there, and there can never be posessive. The point I was making was on it’s and its though. ITS is posessive, it’s is NOT.