ACT English: It’s/Its/Its’ & Their
This topic usually appears between 2-4 times on the ACT English test.
Let’s first review the differences among it’s, its, and its’. Then, we’ll talk about their.
Anytime you see it’s, read it to yourself as “it is.” Here are a couple of examples:
1) It’s hot outside.
2) It’s never too late to change your mind.
Let’s now look at its’. The good news about its’ is that it doesn’t exist in real life, so it’s never
correct on the ACT! As soon as you see this as an answer choice, just cross it out.
Finally, let’s look at its. Its is the possessive form of it, used to indicate possession, ownership,
belonging, etc.
In English, we generally use apostrophes to indicate possession. For example, Todd’s shirt is
blue (the shirt belonging to Todd). But English doesn’t use apostrophes when showing
possession for personal pronouns: yours, his, hers, its, etc.
Here are a couple of examples:
1) I just bought a new shirt. Its color is blue.
2) The car needs to have its tires changed.
To really master this concept, try coming up with your own example sentences using it’s and its.
1) _______________________________________________________.
2) _______________________________________________________.
Tip: if you find it challenging to come up with an example for its, first write a sentence using the
word OF. Then, rewrite the sentence using its.
For example: The smell OF the rose is nice.
—> Now, we can rewrite the sentence with its: Its smell is nice.
Let’s now see how this content is tested on the ACT:
We’ve now seen how to distinguish between various forms of the word it. Oftentimes, we’ll see
the word their as an answer choice on these types of questions, as well. So, let’s now review
how to use their.
Just like its, the word their is a pronoun, and it’s also possessive. The difference is that its is
used when we’re talking about something SINGULAR, and their is used when we’re talking
about something PLURAL.
To illustrate this, think back to our original example of its:
1) I just bought a new shirt. Its color is blue.
Here, we’re talking about a single shirt, which is why we use the word its.
Now, consider this example:
2) I just bought two new shirts. Their color is blue.
Since we’re talking about more than one shirt, we use their.
Here’s another example:
3) My brothers love sports. Their favorite sport is football.
Again, try coming up with your own sentence using the word their:
1) _______________________________________________________.
Let’s now see how this material is tested on the ACT: