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Its vs. It's 5811 Views


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Description:

What’s the difference between its and it’s (spoiler alert: it’s more than just an apostrophe). This video covers the use of both of these words and how to figure out when to use which. Plus, as a bonus, it covers the difference between who’s and whose—two grammar concepts for the price of one.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

Its versus It's, a la Shmoop. It's a good thing you decided not to pretend

00:10

you have the flu this morning...

00:11

...because we're going to talk you through the rule about when to use “its” and “it's”...

00:15

...and it's a doozy. Let's start with “its”...

00:18

...the one with no apostrophe.

00:20

This word is a possessive pronoun, like “hers”, “ours”, or “yours”. You use “its”

00:27

like this. The cat has a spot on its back.

00:31

The cat likes to yowl at its owner. The cat makes a racket in its litterbox.

00:40

The back, the owner, and the litterbox all belong to the cat, so we use the possessive

00:45

pronoun “its”. “It's” with an apostrophe is a contraction

00:51

of two words, either “it is” or “it has”.

00:54

So, you could say, “It is my birthday”...

00:56

...or you could just shorten that to, “It's my birthday.”

01:01

You could say, “It has been the worst day of my life since that time I got a swirlie

01:07

in the third grade”...

01:08

...or you could shorten that to, “It's been the worst day of my life since Swirl-maggedon.”

01:15

Two other words that might confuse you are “whose” and “who's”...

01:19

...but the rule here is the same as the one for “its” and “it's”.

01:22

You use “whose”...

01:23

...that's “w-h-o-s-e”, no apostrophe...

01:26

...when you say things like, “Whose house are we wrapping tonight?”

01:30

You use “who's”...

01:32

...that's “w-h-o-apostrophe-s”...

01:33

...when you say things like, “Who's got the Charmin?”

01:37

Just remember, “its” is a possessive pronoun...

01:40

...and “it's”...

01:41

...with an apostrophe...

01:42

...is the contraction of “it is” or “it has”.

01:51

It's been real.

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