English Grammar | ITS or IT’S
ITS or IT’S? What’s the difference?
One of the most common errors in English is to confuse IT’S and ITS.
Definition for IT’S
- It’s is ALWAYS a contraction.
- It usually means IT IS.
- It can also mean IT HAS.
Examples for IT’S:
- It’s a nice day. (It is a nice day.)
- It’s unusual, but I like it. (It is unusual.)
- I recognize that.It’s Jo’s sweater. (It is Jo’s sweater.)
- It’s been a good holiday, but we need to go home now. (It has been a good holiday.)
Definition for ITS
- ITS is a possessive adjective. You follow this with a noun (i.e., a person, place or thing).
- This means that the noun belongs to IT.
Examples for ITS:
- Our tree has bugs on its leaves.
- Isn’t this pretty? Turn it on its side and you can see all sorts of colours.
- Our table has a scratch on one of its legs.
Why do so many people confuse IT and IT’S?
This is confusing because typically when a word is a possessive, it has an apostrophe.
For example, the car that belongs to Bob is Bob’s car. The dish that belongs to the dog is the dog’s dish.
Remember:
The car that belongs to Bob is his car and the dish that belongs to the dog is its dish.
Lesson on POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES
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