Calling all Grammer Curmudgeons!

[SoupDragon]

"Its? great space saving design folds away flat"

Am I correct in thinking the apostrophe is incorrect? I'm sure it's wrong but want comfirmation before I tell the person (it's in an advert)

"It" is a table BTW.

"Its" without an apostrophe is possessive, as in your example. "It's" with an apostrophe is an abbbreviation of "It is". If I were given a pound for every time I have written this on postgraduate student essays, I'd be driving a Mercedes by now!

Agree, there's no apostrophe in this case. 'Its' as in belonging to it, as in:

'a hospital shouldn't be mean to its patients' or 'its great space saving design folds away flat'

has no apostrophe. Only use it's if the word is an abbreviation of 'IT IS' as the apostrophe denotes a missing letter. So if you can substitute IT IS there is an apostrophe, if not, there isn't. Gosh, probably not clear at all!

Clear as a clear thing and exactly what I thought. Thanks