The possessive determiner “its” is used to indicate possession or ownership by a singular inanimate subject or object. It is the third-person singular neuter form of the possessive pronoun “it.”
Typically, possessive determiners are used before nouns to show that the noun belongs to someone or something. For example:
- “The dog wagged its tail.” – In this sentence, “its” is used to show that the tail belongs to the dog.
- “The company increased its profits.” – Here, “its” indicates that the profits belong to the company.
- “The book lost its cover.” – In this case, “its” indicates that the cover belongs to the book.
The use of “its” is specifically for singular inanimate subjects or objects. When referring to a plural subject or object, the possessive determiner “their” is used instead. For example:
- “The cars lost their wheels.” – “Their” indicates that the wheels belong to the cars.
- “The houses increased their value.” – Here, “their” shows that the value belongs to the houses.
- “The books lost their pages.” – In this case, “their” indicates that the pages belong to the books.
It’s important to note that “its” is used for singular inanimate subjects or objects, while “it’s” with an apostrophe is a contraction of “it is” or “it has.” The correct usage depends on the intended meaning of the sentence.
In the English Grammar Profile, B2 point 54 in the category of DETERMINERS & possessives is defined as
possessive determiner ‘its’ before nouns to refer to a singular inanimate subject or object.
For example:
Its worth was greater than the value of the shire.
Search for clusters that are not a mistake for ‘it is’ on iWeb corpus:
| ITS WAY TO THE
|
11703 |
| ITS KIND IN THE
|
11249 |
| ITS OWN RIGHT .
|
10405 |
| ITS OWN SET OF
|
10256 |
| ITS NAME FROM THE
|
9817 |
| ITS FAIR SHARE OF
|
9112 |
*Note that the lines below do not distinguish between ‘it is’ mistakes!
1 ITS TIME 173805
2 ITS WAY 161685
3 ITS NAME 109988
4 ITS KIND 80588
5 ITS WORTH 78529 (examples should be It’s)
6 ITS MEMBERS 71223
7 ITS ABILITY 68825
* collocates further with ‘due to’
8 ITS USE 66640
9 ITS CUSTOMERS 56253
10 ITS PLACE 51979
11 ITS VALUE 43635
12 ITS HISTORY 42589
13 ITS NO 41028
14 ITS WEBSITE 40440
15 ITS HEAD 39023
16 ITS BUSINESS 38902
17 ITS CORE 38898
18 ITS SIZE 38417
19 ITS INCEPTION 36001
20 ITS PRODUCTS 35869