Comment by hluska
2 days ago
> It’s just an unnecessary exception.
Had you written this “it’s just an unnecessary exception” you would be talking about a “just an unnecessary exception” that belongs to it. That’s not clear in the slightest. Apostrophes exist for clarity and precision.
I think you meant to criticize “its just an unnecessary exception” and were autocorrected.
Reading it without an apostrophe it looks unusual but the meaning is still very clear.
Further, there are many words like “don’t” and “doesn’t” and can’t” where the apostrophe doesn’t even provide any disambiguating value.
There is "wont" and "cant" but theyre rather rare nowadays. Probably others too, but Im (...im?) not able to remember any easily.
The closest I can think of thats maybe confusing is plurals vs possessive... but thats usually pretty clear from context, and when both are combined its often handled specially and thats weird but not usually confusing - English often has other in-sentence (and in-context) markers for plurality. You can of course construct ambiguous sentences, but thats true of many things that are accepted as "legal English".
It would be a shame to lose y'all'd've though.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wont
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cant