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It’s or its
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Please give me the proper use of its or it’s in this sentence and explain exactly why it is that. I am trying to explain it to a coworker who will not accept it.
I saw _______ eyes glowing at me from deep in the woods
It’s, or its?
I am explaining it is “its”. As “its” is the proper way to say when it is possessive of the subject.
Top Comment: “Its” (no apostrophe) is correct because “its” is a possessive determiner and pronoun (used before a noun to convey that that noun belongs to “it,” or used to replace a noun to convey that it belongs to “it”). Although we use an apostrophe to convey possession on nouns, we do not need to do this with possessive pronouns and determiners because they are inherently possessive (they were also a part of English long before we started using apostrophes to denote possession on nouns). No possessive pronouns or determiners have apostrophes: my/mine/your/yours/his/her/hers/its/our/ours/their/theirs “It’s” (with the apostrophe) is a contraction of “it is” (“What is it?” “It’s a turtle”) or “it has” when “has” is an auxiliary verb (“Has it been sunny today?” “Yes, it’s been sunny today”). The apostrophe replaces the missing letter(s) in the contraction. https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/when-to-use-its-vs-its
Reddit - The heart of the internet
Main Post: Reddit - The heart of the internet
its' or its?
Main Post:
I'm writing an article and need to know which to use.
- does "its'" even exist (its' without quotations because it looks confusing)
- If it does, which one do i use? i already know not to use it's
For context, here is the sentence, "Supports Legal/Economic lenses by describing how the act came into place and its'/its impact on the economy"
Sorry for not using proper grammar in this post, but i dont have enough time to go back and correct it now
thank you!
Top Comment: Its' does not exist, but it's and its do. Its is the possessive form (it conveys something belonging to it), which is what you want in your sentence. It's is a contraction of it is or it has (only when has is a helping verb, not a main verb meaning owns): It's [it is] easy! It's [it has] been a nice day.
Its vs It's
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Very often, on the internet, I encounter native English speakers writing sentences like "My friends do not believe me when I say I drink beer for it's taste."
My English teacher always told me that "it's" means "it is", so in this case, that sentence would translate into "My friends do not believe me when I say I drink beer for it is taste.", which doesn't sound very reasonable to me.
The correct usage, in this case, should be "its" because it implies possession, as in, the taste being of the beer.
Is this reasoning correct or I misunderstood it?
Top Comment: Yes, you have the standard usage correct. But surely you can understand why it's such an easy mistake to make, since almost all other possessives use the apostrophe.
Why do English native speakers get "its x it's" wrong so often?
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Sorry if I come across as obnoxious, but the sheer number of people I see messing up the usage of the possessive "its" with the contraction of "it's" never fails to baffle me.
Here on reddit I'd wager it's more common to see people getting it wrong than right. Lots of them US Americans. And it's such an easy rule to remember.
Top Comment: Because in virtually every other instance where something is posessive, you use an apostrophe. The man's dog The lady's car Ben's house Etc It's confusing that it is different.
The amount of people using "it's" instead of "its" as a ...
Main Post: The amount of people using "it's" instead of "its" as a ...
What happened to " Its' " ?
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Am I crazy? Now and then I look up rules I've forgotten or always get wrong. Mostly spelling stuff like Choose vs Chose / Lose vs Loose stuff.
I typed a possessive "it" a minute back and typed it as " its' " and then thought,
"IT's or ITs' for possessive?"
Googled it.
ITS
Daphuyck? Were we not taught that the possessive was " its' " ?
Am I nuts or did the rule change?
Top Comment: "Its" and "it's" is one of those things that often trips people up. "Its" is a possessive pronoun and doesn't need an "'s". "It's" is a contraction of "it is/has". Historically, "its" was "it's", but then the contraction "'tis" was displaced by "it's" around the 18th century.
People typing "it's" when they should write "its."
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"It's," with an apostrophe, is a contraction of "it is," while "its," without an apostrophe, is the possessive form of "it," i.e. "belonging to it." I get that it's an out of the ordinary situation because possessives in English are usually formed with an apostrophe before the s, so it might sometimes be a little tricky to remember. But compared to many other exceptional things in English, it's a fairly simple rule, not too hard to memorize, and the difference in meaning should tip people off, right?
Top Comment:
Autocorrect is generally shit at predicting the correct it's/its. It actually autocorrected the second one there to "it's" just now.
Lots of people don't understand the difference and that is annoying but now we have another layer of having to double check even when we have typed it correctly!
Why do you personally choose to use it/its pronouns?
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Hey internet folks! I'm looking for some perspectives to help me gain more understanding on this.
I'm having trouble understanding why a few of my friends choose to use it/its pronouns. I do my best to remember that that's their preference and to use them accordingly, but it's really difficult. I feel like understanding people's perspectives of why they feel those pronouns adequately represent them might make the situation a bit easier for me.
I think a big part of my difficulty with it/its pronouns is that I feels mean using them, because calling someone "it" is the sort of mean de-humanizing shit I said in highschool to people who didn't fit into the gender binary clearly. Even then I was empathetic enough to feel like shit for doing it, but caved to peer pressure.
Ultimately I know it's up to me to treat my friends the way they want to be treated, but I know I always find things easier to do things when I have one or more solid "why"s to attach to them.
Thanks in advance for your perspectives. 🙂
Top Comment: I think it helps to think of those pronouns not in a dehumanising way but in a "devoid of any and all references to gender" way. As in, yes, we use those pronouns mainly for non-human things, but that doesn't necessarily mean it has to be dehumanising. Personally I feel better about using it/it's pronouns than they/them pronouns because unlike they/them, which has a neutral indication of gender, it/it's pronouns don't even bring gender into consideration at all. If you're referring to a pencil, you're not thinking about the gender of the pencil because that concept doesn't apply to pencils. They/them pronouns still apply the concept of gender, the gender is just neutral. I am anything but neutral, so they/them pronouns just feels wrong. I'd rather skip over the concept of gender entirely, if that makes sense.
Can someone explain the difference between "it's" and "its"? Please help!
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I have read about it online. I have asked my English teacher but I just don't get it. Please help me. I almost feel like I understand it but when I use it, I feel confused again. I know "it's" means it is but I still feel confused.
It's eyes rolled to the back of it's head. Is this right??? This is driving me crazy. How do I know when to use its/it's? English is so hard to understand! Help a poor Asian person please.
Edit: I just woke up and read all of the comments. Thank you so much! I think I understand now. This has been bothering me for a long time, but I can finally say that I get it!
Top Comment: If you can replace it with "it is" then you use "it's", otherwise, it's "its" An example is right there in my comment above: "otherwise it is "its" is still correct, thus I used an apostrophe. It is eyes rolled to back of it is head. So no. It would be: Its eyes rolled to the back of its head. I admit it's a touch confusing because we do add an apostrophe when something belongs to someone ("let's go to Sarah's house.") But when it's neutral like "it" then there isn't one. Like I said, if you can replace it with "it is" then use an apostrophe.