Location: Burger King on Piney Forest Road; Danville, Va.
Picture taken: July 2007
Textual representation of image: “ITS BACK WESTERN WHOPPER”
Whose back? I’m envisioning a large flame-broiled burger on a sesame seed bun wearing a western shirt, bolero, and sombrero.
I know from experience that these make-your-own billboards contain apostrophes (sorry, Ry-Ry…), so maybe someone lost it?! The its/it’s error is a very common one, so probably not. Its is the possessive case of the pronoun it, while it’s is a contraction which stands for it is, which is what the sign really means. One use of the apostrophe is to show where something is missing; in this case, it’s the i of is. :P
We won’t even get into the rest of the missing punctuation in this sign, but at least it’s easily changed!
Rule: Use it’s in place of it is, and use its as an adjective form of the pronoun it.
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