it's vs its | Common English Grammar Mistake

87,876 views ・ 2019-05-16

Shaw English Online


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:00
Hey guys.
0
0
980
00:00
Look at this sentence.
1
980
2220
00:03
And now look at that sentence.
2
3200
2860
00:06
One of them is wrong.
3
6060
2100
00:08
If you don't know which one is wrong, I suggest you keep watching.
4
8160
3940
00:14
Hello guys my name is Fanny and in this video I'm gonna talk to you about a major
5
14900
5460
00:20
spelling mistake in English.
6
20369
2551
00:22
Among students, but also, among native speakers.
7
22920
4220
00:27
It's a difference between 'it's' meaning 'it is'.
8
27140
4660
00:31
And 'its' being the possessive adjective.
9
31800
3780
00:35
Okay let's and take a few sentences and I'm sure you'll get it.
10
35580
4940
00:40
So we have 'It's a sunny day'.
11
40520
4680
00:45
In this case 'it's' is the verb 'to be'.
12
45200
4580
00:49
So it means 'It is a sunny day'.
13
49780
4920
00:54
If we take the second sentence:
14
54700
2360
00:57
'The dog ate its food'.
15
57060
2920
00:59
This is not the verb 'to be'.
16
59980
3740
01:03
It's the possessive adjectives for an object or an animal.
17
63720
4580
01:08
So the food belongs to the dog. It is its food.
18
68300
5860
01:14
Okay so these are two different cases
19
74280
3600
01:17
but sometimes when we write, we confuse the two,
20
77880
4740
01:22
and we will write the dog ate it's food with apostrophe s.
21
82620
4940
01:27
you know getting confused between its possessive adjectives
22
87620
3420
01:31
and it's being the contraction of the verb 'to be'.
23
91040
2640
01:33
This is a very common mistake.
24
93689
3431
01:37
if we take for example the sentence:
25
97120
2840
01:39
'Its my pen'.
26
99960
2120
01:42
Now look at the sentence.
27
102080
1980
01:44
What do you think?
28
104060
1880
01:45
Is this right? Or is this the wrong spelling?
29
105940
5720
01:51
Well it's wrong.
30
111660
1740
01:53
'It's my pen' is the verb 'to be'.
31
113400
3180
01:56
Now the best tip that I can give you
32
116580
2820
01:59
if you get confused, try and say it with the full form.
33
119400
5160
02:04
Try and say 'It is'.
34
124560
2620
02:07
If it makes sense, then it's the contraction of the verb 'to be'
35
127180
4220
02:11
and it should be apostrophe 's'.
36
131440
2340
02:13
If it doesn't make sense, then it's probably the possessive adjective.
37
133780
4280
02:18
So for example, I can say, 'It is a sunny day'.
38
138060
4940
02:23
That makes sense.
39
143000
2160
02:25
Can I say the dog ate it is food?
40
145160
3980
02:29
No, I can't. that doesn't make any sense.
41
149140
3400
02:32
Okay if I say, 'It's my pen',
42
152540
3340
02:35
What do you think? Can I say 'It is my pen'?
43
155880
3400
02:39
I can.
44
159280
960
02:40
So it's actually the contraction of the verb 'to be'.
45
160240
3480
02:43
So it should be 'it' + apostrophe 's' + my pen.
46
163720
5760
02:49
And just so you know one last thing.
47
169480
2980
02:52
Be careful because sometimes in some cases
48
172460
3840
02:56
'it's' can also be the contraction of the verb 'to have' and not 'to be'.
49
176300
5900
03:02
If we take those two sentences:
50
182200
2460
03:04
It's been great to meet you.
51
184660
2700
03:07
It means - It has been great to meet you.
52
187360
3640
03:11
'It's got four legs' means it has got four legs.
53
191000
6120
03:17
Okay so the verb in those cases is 'to have' so be careful.
54
197120
5960
03:23
Okay guys I hope you now understand the difference
55
203080
3330
03:26
between the contraction of the verb 'to be' and the possessive adjective 'its'.
56
206410
4890
03:31
Thank you for watching the video.
57
211300
1820
03:33
Make sure you watch the other videos as well.
58
213120
2880
03:38
Thank you guys for watching my video I hope it has helped and if you've liked
59
218920
4200
03:43
it please show us your support.
60
223120
2860
03:45
Click like, subscribe to the channel, put your comments below,
61
225980
3580
03:49
and share the video with your friends.
62
229560
1980
03:51
See you.
63
231540
2560
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7