ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
Colons, Hyphens, and Apostrophes Videos 9 videos
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 1. How should this sentence be changed so that it is grammatically correct?
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 2. How should we properly hyphenate the words in this sentence?
ACT English Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 3. Where should we place the apostrophe to properly indicate possession?
ACT English 3.12 Passage Drill 203 Views
Share It!
Description:
ACT English: Passage Drill Drill 3, Problem 12. Which form of "it" fits best in this sentence?
Transcript
- 00:03
Here’s your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by low energy waterspouts.
- 00:07
Maybe they should try a more balanced diet.
- 00:10
Check out the following passage...
- 00:26
How would you correct this underlined segment from the passage, if at all?
- 00:30
It's?
Full Transcript
- 00:31
And here are the potential answers...
- 00:36
The correct answer will be the possessive form of the pronoun “it,”
- 00:40
which is standing in for the noun “waterspout.”
- 00:43
We know we need the possessive form of “it” because its main function in the sentence
- 00:47
is to identify that the energy being lost belongs to the waterspout.
- 00:51
Most times, all we have to do to make a word possessive is add an “apostrophe s.”
- 00:57
However, we’d run into trouble if we did that for the word “it.”
- 01:01
See, “it’s” spelled with an “apostrophe s" is a contraction for “it is.”
- 01:07
If we’re ever unsure about which “its” to use, we just say the sentence out loud,
- 01:11
and ask ourselves: would “it is” work in this sentence?
- 01:14
Would we say, “the waterspout loses it is energy”? Would that work? No salami.
- 01:20
Therefore, we’re sure the underlined portion is incorrect, and we can cross out (A).
- 01:24
Side note: we bet if waterspouts ate more than frogs and fish,
- 01:27
they’d have more energy to face the day.
- 01:29
Having nixed choice (A), choice (C) is a cinch to eliminate as well.
- 01:33
We know that “it’s” with an “apostrophe s” stands for “it is,” and we know that
- 01:36
“it is” isn’t called for, right?
- 01:39
Thus, we can cut option (C) without breaking a sweat.
- 01:41
Which is probably more than we can say for these low energy waterspouts.
- 01:44
Choice (D) is a no-brainer.
- 01:46
“Its’” with an apostrophe after it doesn’t mean anything, so it has no place in the English language.
- 01:51
The correct answer is (B) because somewhere along the way somebody decided that “its”
- 01:56
with no apostrophe is the possessive form of the pronoun “it.”
- 01:59
We wonder if that grammarian’s ghost is sad that nobody remembers his or her name.
Related Videos
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 1. How should this sentence be changed so that it is grammatically correct?
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 2. How should we properly hyphenate the words in this sentence?
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 4. Which choice best formats this list of items?
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 2, Problem 2. Where should the semi-colon be placed?
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 2, Problem 1. Which choice of punctuation best completes the sentence?