le 2001/04/23 2:17, Ken Shmidheiser à k.shmidheiser@... a écrit :

> Yes, "it's" is an English word.
> 
> So all's well and good.

ken, i disagree and accuse you of misrepresenting the english languag to our
respected friend alain. "it's" cannot be an english word as it is the result
of the meeting of two other words "it" and "is". were we dealing with
subatomic particles it might be fair to document the new particle created
during this event, however in language this is more problematic...

sometimes a new word is formed at the moment of collision:
fire "sky" at "scraper" long enough and you get the new word "skyscraper";
push hurriedly one word at another, "it" at "is" and you get "it's" with the
apostrophe betraying the place of collision. this does not necesarily make
it a word as sometimes the fellows involved pick themselves up, brush
themselves off and decide to continue as "it is".

this is not a firm rule however, as who would take "o'clock" [from "of the
clock"] as a collision, besides the point that a lot more letters were lost.

:-j
[I'm feeling pedantic this morning, but that's ok, he said that i could]