its

IPA/ɪts/
KK[ˈɪts]IPA/ɪts/

its — determiner

1. Placed before a noun to link that noun to an animal, object, or baby already men

1.determinerA1
Definition

Placed before a noun to link that noun to an animal, object, or baby already mentioned in the conversation or text.

Example

Tunde's dog wagged its tail when he walked through the door.

The Watanabe family sold its old car before moving to Vancouver.

its + noun for belonging

Grammar Patterns

its + noun

Usage Note

Possessive its has no apostrophe. Do not confuse with it's (a contraction of it is or it has).

Common Mistakes

The dog wagged it's tail.
The dog wagged its tail.
it's means it is or it has; its shows possession without an apostrophe.

its — adjective

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: determiner/1

Its, his, her, and their are all possessive determiners, but each connects to a different type of antecedent. His refers to a male person or animal (the boy and his bicycle). Her refers to a female person or animal (Maria and her cat). Its refers to a non-human thing, animal, or baby whose gender is unknown or irrelevant (the tree and its leaves, the cat and its kittens). Their refers to plural antecedents or, in modern usage, a singular person of unspecified gender (the students and their books; a friend and their opinion). Learners often confuse its with it's — remember that the possessive form has no apostrophe.

its ↗his ↗her ↗their ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • its own
  • its kind
  • its way

Phrases

  • in its own right
  • on its own
  • of its own

Etymology

Old EnglishEarly Modern EnglishEnglish

Its is the possessive form of it. In Old English, the possessive of hit (the original form of it) was his, which overlapped with the possessive of he. By the late 1500s, writers began using it's as a possessive to avoid confusion, and by the early 1800s the apostrophe was dropped, giving us the modern word its.