Punctuation and grammar tips
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Another problem is the fact that, for almost every rule in English grammar, there is an exception. For example, a ship is generally referred to in English as ‘she’. Cars can be referred to this way too. Yet a cat, dog or other animal can also be referred to as ‘it’ – and anything belonging to it would be ‘its’. For example: ‘Its feeding bowl is over there.’ Very strangely, a baby can be referred to as ‘it’ too! For example: ‘It’s a cute baby’, or ‘Its feed is due now’ (meaning ‘The baby’s feed is due now.’). Although I deal with apostrophes a bit later, I will just explain the difference in meaning between ‘it’s’ and ‘its’ in the last paragraph. The apostrophe (’) in ‘it’s’ tells you that a letter is missing. In this case it is the letter i. So the meaning in this case is ‘it is’. Sometimes the apostrophe will signify that two letters are missing. In that case the meaning will be ‘it has’. The context will help you understand which of the two possibilities applies. When you see ‘its’ with no apostrophe (’) between the t and the s, this meaning will always be ‘belonging to it’, ‘owned by it’, ‘of it’. We call this the possessive or genitive case.
Parts of speech and other grammar Parts of speech In English grammar, words can be categorized into what we term parts of speech. These include nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections. A noun names a person, place or thing. For example: girl, London, newspaper; The man drank his coffee.