"it's" vs "its"

The dog ate from ___ food dish and drank from ___ water dish.

  • it's

    Votes: 27 11.9%

  • its

    Votes: 200 88.1%
  • Total voters
    227
luizpellegrino said:
It's
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Luiz,

You can tell whether it's is correct by testing whether you can replace it with "it is" or "it has". Can you do that in either of the blanks?
 
it's is the correct one.
 
achat said:
Thanks it's information has helped me.
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Can you replace "it's" with "it is" or "it has"? If not, then "it's" is wrong.
 
"it's" = "it is", similar to "I am" and "He is".
"its" is similar to "my", "his".
So, we fill the blank with "its".
 
Obviously its
 
OMG, a well-known "problem" that also many native ESL teachers have in their written English. A little bit of grammar awareness may help:
1. "its" is a possessive pronoun for inanimate objects/things.
2. "It's" is a contraction of "it is" and cannot be used where "its" as a possessive pronoun would be appropriate,
Non-native speakers of English with a certain degree of proficiency in English like me are "grammar-aware" while many native speakers of English, including many (poorly trained) ESL teachers, are not.
It's time to see that "its" should not be used here as "its" time has not come yet....I am playing with words a bit, and that was before I was taking a my daily glass of Sherry....hicks...hicks..hicks...LOOOL
 
I'm so thankful for having found this post, because I didn’t know about the difference of “It’s and its”, and now the meaning of “its” is about a belonging in a sentence but in the british English usually. I’m a mexican student in english, and I want to know the differences of “on, in, at”, somebody can to help me, please?

Sorry, my english is bad yet :)
 
Luis_Villegas said:
I'm so thankful for having found this post, because I didn’t know [STRIKE]about[/STRIKE] the difference [STRIKE]of[/STRIKE] between “it’s and its”. [STRIKE]and[/STRIKE] Now I know that the meaning of “its” is about [STRIKE]a[/STRIKE] belonging [STRIKE]in a sentence[/STRIKE] but in [STRIKE]the[/STRIKE] British English usually. I’m a Mexican student [STRIKE]in[/STRIKE] of English, and I want to know the [STRIKE]differences of[/STRIKE] difference between “on, in, at”. Can somebody [STRIKE]can to[/STRIKE] help me, please?

Sorry, my English is bad. [STRIKE]yet :)[/STRIKE]
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Your English is not bad. You're a learner! You can ask about the differences between "on", "in" and "at" in the Ask A Teacher sub-section of the forum. However, you will need to be more specific with your question. Find some authentic sentences that use those prepositions and you can ask us about each sentence, and about why that particular preposition is used.

I don't know what you mean by "in British English usually". The difference between "its" and "it's" is the same in every variant of English, not just British English.
 
Certainly! In the sentence, we use the pronoun "its" to indicate possession by the dog.

When we say "the dog ate from its food dish," we are indicating that the dog ate from the dish that belongs to it. In this case, "its" is a possessive pronoun that shows ownership or possession.

Similarly, when we say "the dog drank from its water dish," we are indicating that the dog drank from the dish that belongs to it. Again, "its" is used as a possessive pronoun to show ownership.

Using "its" in these contexts helps us clarify that the food dish and water dish belong specifically to the dog being mentioned in the sentence.
 
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