spelling checker is wrong

Question

I often wonder why I see the proliferation of the confusion of plural versus possessive spelling of nouns.

For example, I notice when using spell check on a document, and I have the adjective its (meaning the possessive form of the word "it") the spelling checker "suggests" using it's .. which is not the same word and is incorrect.  The rushed user will probably take that to mean the word it's should replace the word its!

Why is this happening?  Is everyone asleep at the wheel in your development group?

Obviously the developer who masterminded this doesn't know the difference either!  Is grammar not being taught in school any more? Obvioulsy not.

Where can I go to get this changed?  Or does anyone at Microsoft care? 

Many thanks.

Answer 1

Like the original commenter, I find this problem and others.  It is now 2015. The MS Word spelling and grammar checker still often confuses plurals with possessives, misses issues of singular / plural agreement and ends sentences with prepositions.  Of course, I don't have a list of specific examples.  Apparently neither did the original writer. I am working and don't have time to collect them. When searching for a way to correct these errors, one only receives results that discuss how wonderful the checkers are. They are better than nothing, but they are not correct and must be corrected manually.  Many people are not grammatically fluent enough to manually correct their documents. That's their fault, but it still does not correct the problems with your tool.

Answer 2

I often wonder why I see the proliferation of the confusion of plural versus possessive spelling of nouns.

 

For example, I notice when using spell check on a document, and I have the adjective its (meaning the possessive form of the word "it") the spelling checker "suggests" using it's .. which is not the same word and is incorrect.  The rushed user will probably take that to mean the word it's should replace the word its!

 

Why is this happening?  Is everyone asleep at the wheel in your development group?

 

Obviously the developer who masterminded this doesn't know the difference either!  Is grammar not being taught in school any more? Obvioulsy not.

 

Where can I go to get this changed?  Or does anyone at Microsoft care? 

 

Many thanks.

 

 

I have  not found that to be the case.  Here Word 2010 is quite happy with constructions like

The cat licked its paws

Can you give examples of where Word wants to change its to it's

Of course I learnt grammar about 60 years ago and Word probably defers to my age.