These questions ask you to choose between words that sound alike but do different grammatical jobs. You may need to complete a sentence, find an error or recognise several correct uses at once.
Use the sentence slot, then expand contractions
First inspect what follows the gap. A possessive determiner normally comes directly before a noun and answers whose: its cover, your parcel, their room or whose bicycle. A contraction contains a subject and verb, so expand it before deciding: it's means it is or it has, you're means you are, they're means they are, and who's means who is or who has. If the expanded words fit the grammar and meaning, the contraction fits.
| Signal | Form and a small example |
|---|---|
| Possession by one thing, or a clause beginning with it plus a verb | Use its before the possessed noun: The tree shed its leaves. Use it's when it is or it has fits: It's growing quickly. |
| Possession by the person addressed, or you plus a verb | Use your before the possessed noun: Your tea is ready. Use you're for you are: You're early. |
| Possession by people, a place or existence, or they plus a verb | Use their for possession, there for place or existence, and they're for they are: Their seats are there, and they're comfortable. |
| A question about ownership, or who plus a verb | Use whose for ownership: Whose umbrella fell? Use who's for who is or who has: Who's knocking? |
| A possessive that stands alone, or there plus a verb | Use theirs when the noun is omitted: The blue van is theirs. Use there's for there is or there has: There's enough time. |
Apostrophes do not mark possession in these particular possessive forms. Instead, they signal omitted letters in the contractions. After expanding a contraction, read the whole sentence aloud in its expanded form; a phrase such as you are coat or it is lid exposes the mismatch immediately.
Where the sound-alikes mislead
| Temptation | How to reject it |
|---|---|
| Adding an apostrophe whenever something belongs to it | The possessive determiner is its without an apostrophe. Reserve it's for a sentence where it is or it has makes sense. |
| Choosing you're because it sounds like your | Before a possessed noun, use your. You're already contains the verb are and cannot perform the noun-modifying job. |
| Using there or their where the clause needs they are | There handles place or existence, and their handles possession. Only they're supplies both the subject they and the verb are. |
| Using who's before an owned noun | Ask whether the sentence means who is or who has. If it instead asks which person owns the following noun, use whose. |
| Treating theirs and there's as interchangeable | Theirs replaces a possessive noun phrase and can stand alone. There's expands to there is or there has and introduces a clause. |
Try it
Which sentence contains an its/it's error?
- The robot returned to its charging dock.
- It's been offline since noon.
- The printer lost it's connection during the update.
- It's receiving its first firmware patch.
Write the contraction of 'who is' that completes the question: ___ leading today's safety briefing?
Which sentences use their, there, or they're correctly? Select all that apply.
- Leave the parcels over there.
- They're garden won a prize.
- Their neighbours shared a ladder.
- Their are two spare helmets.