The only special form of apostrophe is "its"

But Ori it's occurred to me to ask, how do you see it's special

Dale's car = your car (your name is Dale)
"Dale's car" does not mean "Dale is car."

While "It's car" mean "it is car," not "its car."

That is why it is special.

Dale's here. Who's here? He's here.
What's here? It's here. What's it? 'It's car' is wrong, it's a car. He's a boy. She's a girl.

Well,
While "It's car" mean "it is (a) car," not "its car."

Nobody writes it's car, because nobody (except actors playing Russians in Hollywood movies) says "It is car".

Well, you guys all tried to avert the core of the question.

Contrex's photos (Form one)
Contrex's a teacher (Contrex is a teacher) (Form two)

See, the possessive form (Contrex's, the form one) can be as the same as the form two.

While the possessive form of "it" is "its", not "it's". That is why it is special.

Well, of course it's a special use. If that weren't the convention for 'it' we would have two identical words with completely different meanings.

Not to suggest we don't have gazillions of other identical words with several meanings. If you say English is inconsistant, well, it's inconsistant.

Note:

The possessive apostrophe (e.g. Peter's photos) is standard in all levels of formality in written English, whereas the contracted 'is' apostrophe-S (e.g. Peter's a teacher) is a written representation of an informal speech contraction as are the similarly contracted forms of are, am, will, would, have, had, did, is/will/did/would not, etc. These are used in less formal written English only.

Thanks Ori, had never occurred to me

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_does_the_s_in_a_possessive_noun_stand_for

"Dale's car" could mean Dale, his car," but then wouldn't we say "Ceili'r car"

Yes Con, as in "You're here." However as Ori points out this still leaves "Ceili's car" in the lurch

Take a look at Possessive Pronouns for additional information.

I am not sure what you are saying here. What is being left in the lurch? We have the possessive apostrophe-S - John's car, Mary's hand, my dog's tail, London's streets, the Pope's schedule, the day's events, God's wrath. This is normal, standard written English, and is found at all levels of formality. An exception, as Ori has noticed, is that there is no possessive apostrophe after 'it' - London and its history, my jacket lost one of its buttons when I was drunk.

We also have the conversational, informal apostrophe-S which is a contraction of 'is' - Jim's angry, London's burning, my dog's old, the Pope's a Catholic, mother's drunk again, it's hot today. Although this may be found in some written English of the less formal kind, it is avoided in formal written English.

Where is the problem?

Incidentally, the -his theory of the origin of the possessive apostrophe is just one of a number of them, scholars have been arguing over this since the 18th century.






We tend not to use the possessive apostophe-S

But 'it's' is not a possessive, so it doesn't follow the trend. It is a contraction.

Er, that's what I said.

Sorry Con, not exactly problematical. In #……..749 Ori suggests the " 's" possessive (Ceili's car) is "special" because it's not an abbreviation but I could easily have misunderstood her