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July 11, 2008
...Three things I do not know enough about
1. I do not know when to use “it’s” and when to use “its”. I feel quite sure I was told once of a rule to determine the correct choice, but I must have forgotten it. It occurs to me now that I can probably look this up on the Internet and be cured.
2. I do not know when to use “though” and when “although” is a more appropriate choice. Is there a real difference in meaning and/or usage?
3. I am never sure about using “that” or not, as in the sentence “It is a statement [that] we can all agree on”. Is there a rule for including/leaving out the “that”?
Anyone want to clue me in?
the Korybante replies:
Aha! Thank you for giving me an opportunity to show off my grammar skills! At the risk of coming off like a totally annoying know-it-all, I can answer the first question with complete confidence.
1. Use “it’s” when you are using a contraction of “it is” - think about the apostrophe standing in for the missing “i”; use “its” for the gender neutral singular possessive pronoun - “the dog wags its tail”.
2. Hmmmm. “Though and although”. Well, there are times when you would only use one or the other, although there are times when I believe they may be interchangeable. I admit I don’t know how to cite the usage convention, though.
3. Leave out “that” and “which” any time you can get away with omitting them and the sentence still sounds right and makes sense. “It is a statement we can all agree on” sounds clear and succinct to me. “That” is just extra baggage.
