I guess the fact that I correct grammar for a part-time living makes some of my friends nervous… 
Please don’t think I judge you! I judge my students (because they are supposed to be learning) and the stupid signs I see out and about, but I don’t judge my friends! The truth is, it is so much easier to see other people’s mistakes than to see our own. I swear, we are hardwired to see what we think we’ve written. At least I am.
And, if you haven’t noticed yet, I am the QUEEN of typos. Yes, there is some horrible, green FB monster who edits my posts after I hit the SUBMIT button. I’m quite sure because I know there are never typos before I hit SUBMIT! They mysteriously show up afterward.
Anyhow, I’ve posted previously about possessive pronouns but thought maybe I should devote an entire post to each one individually. I see these mistakes all the time. And I can remember having to look this one up in the not so distant past, so it’s a good one to start with. It’s not even on my original possessive pronoun post.
Who’s = WHO IS
WHOSE = possessive pronoun
If you write this: Who’s car is parked in my spot? You’ve actually written: WHO IS car IS parked in my spot? And you can tell that the second question doesn’t work.
Just remember, pronouns break the apostrophe rule. Do not add apostrophes to pronouns to make them possessive. Reserve those apostrophes for nouns.
Make sense? Enjoy your 5 Minute Grammar Lesson! And please, I promise not to judge you if you overlook the type that’s currently on my FB page…It was the monster! I swear!!
About Michelle
Welcome! I'm Michelle and I'm glad you're here. Simplify, Live, Love is a blog about simple life in rural Iowa. We are a self-employed, frugal, green, mostly homeschooling family of 6 working to go off the grid on a modern day homestead in Eastern Iowa. Please subscribe for gardening tips, green living hints, recipes, fun giveaways, and frugal ideas. Thanks for stopping by.
So I heard quite a while ago that you should not use apostrophes AT ALL in writing. Like can’t, won’t, don’t etc. unless it is someone’s direct quote. You should pull apart the apostrophe. Is that true? I write news articles and I am always cautious about that. Maybe I am over cautious.
Technically, the old-school rule is to avoid contractions in formal writing. However, you can’t avoid all apostrophes because they also show possession. It’s a good rule of thumb to avoid contractions, especially for people who struggle with words like YOUR, WHO’S etc. But sometimes, avoiding contractions makes writing sound stuffy and old fashioned. It’s such a fine line!! I think you’re fine avoiding contractions! I probably need to do a better job at recommending to my students that they don’t use them. The problem I face is that most of the essays we read to study good writing model contractions. I harp at my students to avoid writing in the second person – yet they see that modeled, too. Hard for them to get it when they encounter it in the essays we read.