Weekly English Lessons from a Yankee and a Brit
 
Sunday - August 10, 2008

It’s and Its

Today we look at two identical words except for an apostrophe. It’s and its sound exactly the same but mean very different things. The first one, it’s is the contracted form of “it is”, so the apostrophe is a substitute for the letter “i” in the verb “is”. However, the second word (its) is the possessive form of ‘it’. Take these following sentences as an example:

1) It’s great to be on holiday (it is great to be on holiday)
2) The company was hit hard by the scandal and its reputation was forever damaged (its = the reputation of the company)

So, it’s time for me to sign off now, as my brain needs its rest ;-)

~Rob

Leave a Reply

 
© 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Robert Diem & Roberto Rabbini