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Its vs. It's 5830 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.
- English I EOC Assessment / Correct Spelling
- Spelling / Correct Spelling
- Conventions / Demonstrate command of capitalization, punctuation, and spelling
- Conventions / Demonstrate command of capitalization, punctuation, and spelling
- Conventions / Demonstrate command of capitalization, punctuation, and spelling
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.
Full Transcript
- 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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Want even more deets on Question Marks? Click here to review. Or take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.
Want even more deets on Your vs. You're? Click here to review. Or take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.
Want even more deets on Into vs. In To? Click here to review. Or take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.