The second meaning of the word is its

Its vs. It’s: How to Choose the Right Word

The often confused words sound alike but have very different meanings

Updated on August 28, 2019

The words «its» and «it’s» are easily confused by English-language learners and even native speakers. They are pronounced the same—and they do have a common base word—but they have different meanings and uses. Both «its» and «it’s» are based on the pronoun «it,» which serves as a function word or refers to a previously mentioned noun. However, «its» (without an apostrophe) is a possessive pronoun, like his or her. «It’s» (with an apostrophe in front of the «s») is a contraction of «it is» or «it has.» The apostrophe in «it’s» is a mark of omission, not possession.

How to Use Its

Use «its» when you need a possessive pronoun, which is a pronoun that can take the place of a noun phrase to show ownership. For example, one of the most classic uses of «its» as a possessive pronoun would be the cliche:

• «Don’t judge a book by its cover.»

In this case, «its» is a possessive pronoun referring to «book.» You are telling the reader or listener not to judge a book by the cover belonging to it, or connected to/placed on it.

How to Use It’s

«It’s,» by contrast, is a contraction for the words «it» and «is.» The apostrophe is literally swapping out for, or being replaced by, the apostrophe, as in:

• «It’s mine; it’s all mine.»

You are literally saying:

• «It is mine; it is all mine.»

The reader or listener does not know what «it’s» refers to, at least not from this sentence alone. The word «it» in «it is» could be referring to any inanimate object or an animal whose gender is unknown. The «it» in «it’s» here could refer to a cellphone, for example in the sentence:

• «The cellphone is mine.»

The word «cellphone» (and the article «the,» which precedes it) could be replaced with «it is,» as in:

• «It’s mine.»

You are literally saying, «It (the cellphone) is mine.»

Examples

• «Sal placed the ring back in its box and returned it to the safe.» In this case, «its» is a possessive pronoun referring to, or renaming, the word «ring,» which is back in «its» box (the box that belongs to the ring).
• Mr. Rogers (aka Fred McFeely Rogers) used to say, «It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.» In this use, the cardigan-wearing children’s television show host was actually saying, «It is a good day in the neighborhood.» «It’s» is a contraction for «it is» in this example.
• «It’s been a long day, Granny said, and we’re all rather tired.» In this example, «it’s» is a contraction for «it is.» Granny is saying, «It has been a long day….»
• When the landlord asked about this month’s rent check, Kim said, «It’s on its way.» In this case, the sentence includes both uses of «it’s» and «its.» In the first, «it’s» is a contraction for «it is.» Kim is saying that «it» (the check») «is» on its way. In the second use, the «its» is a possessive pronoun also referring to the check, which is on «its» way.

How to Remember the Difference

«Its» is a unique construction because this possessive word quite frequently gets mistaken for its cousin «it’s.» To keep the meanings straight, remember:

• Possessive pronouns don’t have apostrophes.
• Try substituting «its» or «it’s» with «it is» or «it has,» and see if the sentence still makes sense. If it doesn’t, omit the apostrophe. The opposite is also true: If you omit the apostrophe and the sentence doesn’t make sense, you’ll know you need to use that punctuation mark.

So, if you say, «The ring is back in it’s box,» you’re really saying, «The ring is back in it is box.» That makes no sense, so you would need to omit the apostrophe, as in: «The ring is back in its box.» You’re saying the ring is back in the box belonging to it or designated for it.

Conversely, if you say, «Its a nice day,» that makes no sense. What you mean to say is, «It’s a nice day,» meaning, «It is a nice day.» In this case, you do need the apostrophe.

Sources

• Beard, Robert. “What Is the Difference between Its and It’s?” What Is the Difference Between Its and It’s? alphadictionary.com.
• “It’s vs. Its: How Should You Use Them?” Grammarly, 16 May 2019.
• “Its vs. It’s: What Is the Difference Between Its and It’s?” Writing Explained, 27 Nov. 2015.

Would you like to know the number one grammatical error?
Hint: The word involved is small and it’s contained in this sentence.

That’s right: its vs. it’s
Yet the two rules are actually quite easy to remember.

Rule 1: When you mean it is or it has, use an apostrophe.

Examples:
It’s a nice day.
It’s your right to refuse the invitation.
It’s been great getting to know you.

Rule 2: When you are using its as a possessive, don’t use the apostrophe.

Examples:
The cat hurt its paw.
The furniture store celebrated its tenth anniversary.
Note: From what we understand, the possessive was also written it’s until a couple of hundred years ago. While we don’t know for certain, it is possible that the apostrophe was dropped in order to parallel possessive personal pronouns like hers, theirs, yours, ours, etc.”

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If the article or the existing discussions do not address a thought or question you have on the subject, please use the «Comment» box at the bottom of this page.

Choosing between its or it’s is difficult for many learners of the English language.

Basically, its is the possessive form and it’s is a contraction of ‘it is‘ or ‘it has‘. 

Here we’ll teach you more about them with some examples. 

A Top Tip for Choosing Its or It’s

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A way to help you choose between its or it’s is to say the sentence that you are about to write in your head or out loud and see if it sounds right.

But when you do it, place it is and it has in place of the its/it’s. If it doesn’t sound right then it’s likely to be the possessive form.  

Let take an example. Imagine you are going to write this sentence but you don’t know whether to use its or it’s: 

• The painting has faded and lost its/it’s colour?

Now read out the sentence with it is and it has:

• The painting has faded and lost it is/it has colour?

You’ll have hopefully realised that it didn’t sound right when you did that. So it should be its without the apostrophe in the sentence. Now try this one:

• I was going to leave but I realised its/it’s not the right time. 

Now read these out:

• I was going to leave but I realised it is/it has not the right time. 

This time you should have realised that it is sounds ok, and so it’s is the right one to use. 

Contractions

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Another thing to note is about contractions. When a word is shortened as in it’s, it’s called a contraction.

Contractions are common when we speak or in more informal writing such as social media, emails, letters, novels and magazines, but not for academic writing. 

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LECTURE
1.

THE
WORD AND ITS MEANING

OUTLINE

1. The
   word and its main characteristics.

2. Types
   of meaning.

3. Semantic
   changes and their causes.

1. The
   word and its main characteristics.

Lexicology
is a branch of linguistics that deals with the vocabulary of the
language and characteristics of words as the main lexical units.
Lexical units comprise words and set expressions, or groups of words
of fixed character.

There are
over 200 definitions of a word but none is generally accepted. The
word reflects world mapping which is culturally and nationally
specific. Word use is also pre-determined by person’s social and
educational status, gender, age, etc.

The word
performs the following functions:

1. denotational
   (denotes things, qualities, actions,etc);

2. generalizing
   function (e.g. tree, house, animal);

3. emotive
   function (expresses our feelings and emotions);

4. structural
   function (performs a certain syntactic function, is a part of a
   sentence).

The word is
the smallest meaningful unit possessing the following features:

1. isolatability,
   i.e. ability of a word to function in communication alone, to make
   a sentence, e.g. ‘Help!’ This distinguishes a word from another
   meaningful unit – a morpheme, which cannot be used in isolation.
   It can function only as a part of a word.

2. indivisibility,
   i.e. a word cannot be further divided without breaking its meaning.
   Cf. asleep – a (sound) sleep, alive – a (quiet) life.

3. positional
   mobility, i.e. a word can change its position in a sentence. E.g.
   Suddenly they came up to a house. They came up to a house suddenly.
   Up to a house they suddenly came.

The word is
a two-facet unit combining meaning and form. The relationship between
the two is denoted by the term motivation. If the connection between
the meaning of a word and its form is clear and the form helps us to
understand the meaning, the word is considered motivated. If the
connection is conventional, the word is said to be non-motivated at
the present stage of language development.

There are
three types of motivation:

1. Phonetic
   , the sound form of the word helps us to understand its meaning,
   e.g. bang, bump, hiss, cuckoo, etc.

2. morphological,
   the morphemic composition of a word helps to understand its meaning,
   e.g. ex+ noun = former …; re+ verb = do again; verb+er = agent,
   doer of the action.

3. figurative
   meaning of a word becomes clear through its direct meaning, e.g. the
   leg of the table, the foot of the mountain, the eye of the needle.

The
meaning is not homogeneous. It is a system of systems:

1)
It combines lexical and grammatical meanings, e.g. actress is a
personal noun.

2)
Lexical meaning includes denotative and connotative ones.

3)
Denotative meaning is conceptual (what a word denotes), it is
divided into semantic

components
called semes, e.g. Father is a male parent. Denotative components may

be
culturally predetermined (cf. winter in Siberia and in Australia, it
is a season

between
autumn and spring but all other characteristics are different:
duration,

temperature,
etc.).

4)
Connotative meanings express the speaker’s attitude to the subject
of speech and may

be
as follows:

1. stylistic:
   chap, fellow, associate; child, infant, kid;

2. emotive:
   cool, awesome, terrific;

3. expressive:
   to trudge, to march, to gobble;

4. evaluative:
   clever, silly, good, bad(rational evaluation), scoundrel
   (emotional evaluation);

5. associative
   (a fir-tree – forest, New Year);

6. national
   and cultural (kilt – Scots);

7. pragmatic:
   Can you open the door?

5)
A word may be polysemantic, i.e. it may have several interrelated
denotative

meanings:

1. One
   of the meanings is called primary, this is the meaning in which the
   word made its first appearance in the language, all the other
   meanings which developed later are called secondary, e.g. chair as a
   piece of furniture (primary), chair as the head of some meeting,
   conference or chair as a department (secondary meanings).

2. One
   of the meanings is central, others are peripheral. As a rule,
   primary and central meanings coincide but it is not necessarily so.
   In the course of language development a secondary meaning may become
   the central one ousting the primary meaning to the periphery, e.g.
   revolution: primary meaning is that of rotary movement, revolving,
   secondary – social change (now central).

3. Meaning
   can be direct and indirect (figurative, transferred), e.g. white
   collar, blue collar, smoke screen, etc.

III.
Semantic changes and their causes.

1.Specialization,
or narrowing of meaning

e.g.
garage – a safe place

meat
– any food

2.Generalization,
or widening of meaning

e.g.
ready (in O.E. – ready for a ride, now – ready for any activity)

arrive
– to land at a shore

3.Elevation
of meaning (getting better, going higher)

e.g.
queen (in O.E. – woman)

knight
(in O.E. – young servant).

4.Degradation
of meaning (getting worse, lower)

e.g.
a spinster – a woman that spins wool

idiot
– a private person

5.
Transference of meaning. The name of one thing is used to name some
other things.

Transference
is further subdivided into metaphor, metonymy and euphemism.

1. Transference
   of meaning based on likeness is called a metaphor. Metaphors can be
   based on likeness of form (a head of cabbage), of position (the foot
   of the mountain), function (Head of the Department), size, quantity
   (ocean of troubles, storm of applause), etc. Sometimes a combination
   of several features makes up the foundation for a metaphor (a leg of
   a table – function, position, shape). Metaphors may involve
   transition from proper names to common ones, e.g. a Don Juan,
   Apollo, Vandals, Hooligans.

2. Transference
   of meaning based on associations of contiguity (being together) is
   called metonymy. We can use the name of a container for the thing it
   contains (Will you have another cup?), instrument for the agent (His
   pen knows no compromise), the place for the people who live or work
   there (Kharkiv greets the guests. The Kremlin agrees to the treaty),
   the name of a person for the things s/he made (He reads Byron), the
   name of a part for the whole (Who’s the moustache?)

3. Transference
   of meaning dictated by social conventions, norms, rules of behavior.
   A word or a word combination is used instead of the other word that
   is offensive, rude, or taboo.

e.g. to
die: to perish, to pass away, to join the silent majority, to meet
one’s maker, to be with the angels, to cross the Great Divide, etc.

toilet: WC,
bathroom, the necessary facilities, powder room, ladies/ gents,
public conveniences, cloakroom, throne room, porcelain collection,
Windsor Castle, etc.

Causes
of semantic changes may include linguistic and extra-linguistic ones.

The
latter are connected with social, political, economic, cultural and
scientific development.

e.g.
computer, space, feedback, bikini, villain, boor, etc.

The
former embrace differentiation of synonyms (e.g. time and tide),
borrowings (hound and dog), preserving the old meaning in idioms
(love token, token of respect), etc.

LECTURE 2.

PHRASEOLOGY

1. Set
   expressions, their features and origin.

2. Classification
   of phraseological units.

1. Set
   expressions, their features and origin.

Set
expressions are stable ready-made units with fixed integrate
structure. They are contrasted to free phrases and semi-fixed
combinations. A free phrase permits substitution of any of its
elements without any semantic change in the other element, e.g. to go
early: to work, get up, move, etc. early: to go late, quickly, down,
etc.

In
semi-fixed combinations there are some boundaries for the
substitution, e.g. go to school (market, college, court, etc.) is
used only with nouns of places where definite actions are performed.

Features
that make set expressions stable:

1. euphonic;

2. imaginative;

3. connotative.

Euphonic:
rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, e.g. safe and sound, stuff and nonsense,
by hook or by crook.

Semantic
stylistic features: simile, contrast, metaphor, synonymy, antonymy,
e.g. as like as two peas, as old as hills, more or less, from
beginning to end, a lame duck, arms race, to swallow a pill, proud
and hauty.

A bit of
expressions are connected with different spheres of people’s life,
nature, etc.

1. nature,
   e.g. out of the blue, as welcome as snow in May, to rain cats and
   dogs, etc.

2. agriculture,
   e.g. plough the sand, reap a rich harvest, sow wild oats, etc.

3. sports,
   e.g. fair play, to kick a goal, etc.

4. mythology,
   e.g. the apple of discord, Achilles’ heel, etc.

5. the
   Bible, e.g. Solomon’s judgement, forbidden fruit, etc.

6. folklore,
   e.g. peeping Tom, Calamity Jane, etc.

7. literature,
   e.g. to fight the windmills, a green-eyed monster, etc.

1. Classification
   of phraseological units.

There
are different approaches to studying and classifying phraseological
units.

1. The
   classification of V.V.Vinogradov is synchronic and semantic. It is
   based upon the type of motivation. He distinguishes:

   1. phraseological
      fusions, e.g. tit for tat. They represent the highest stage of
      blending, are not motivated nowadays, are specific for every
      language and cannot be literally translated;

   2. phraseological
      unities , e.g. to know where a shoe pinches, to rise to the bait,
      etc. They are clearly motivated, some of them are easily
      translated and even international;

   3. phraseological
      combinations, e.g. to meet the demands, to make friends. They are
      not only clearly motivated but also contain one component used in
      its direct meaning (demands, friends).

2. Larin’s
classification is also semantic but diachronic. He believes that each
unit goes through three stages in its development. First it is a free
word combination, then a motivated metaphoric phrase and then an
idiom with lost motivation, e.g. to give a sack, to give a cold
shoulder, to dance attendance on smb., etc.

Semantic
classifications of Vinogradov and Larin are open to criticism since
the degree of motivation may be different for different speakers
depending on their knowledge of history, customs and traditions,
level of education, etc. So they are subjective, not reliable enough.

1. N.Amosova’s
   approach is contextological. She defines phraseological units as
   units of fixed context characterized by a specific word-order and
   peculiar semantic relationship between the components.
   Phraseological units are divided into phrasemes and idioms.
   Phrasemes are always binary. One of their components has a
   phraseologically bound meaning, the other serves as the determining
   context, e.g. small change, small hours, small talk. In idioms the
   new meaning is created by the whole, each element having its own
   meaning weakened or lost. Idioms may be motivated and demotivated.

2. Koonin’s
   classification is functional: depends on the functions
   phraseological units fulfil in communication. There may be: a)
   nominating (e.g. a man of straw, a bull in a china shop); b)
   nominative communicative (verbal), e.g. to go round the bush, to
   pull one’s leg, etc.; c) communicative (sentences by form), e.g.
   Curiosity killed the cat; d) interjectional, e.g. Good heavens, a
   pretty kettle of fish, etc. Further classification depends on
   whether the units are changeable or unchangeable, what their
   structure is, etc.

LECTURES
3-5.

WORD-BUILDING.
STRUCTURE OF WORDS.

OUTLINE

1. Structural
   types of words.

2. Affixation.
   Classification of affixes. Suffixes and prefixes.

3. Conversion
   (zero derivation).

4. Compounding.
   Classification of compounds. Criteria of compounding. Borderline
   cases (semi-affixes).

5. Shortening.

6. Abbreviations.

7. Minor
   types of word-building.

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