Learn how to pronounce the words ITS and IT’S with this American English Homophone Pronunciation Lesson. Both of these words are pronounced the same way.
Definitions:
ITS means belonging to or associated with; its is a possessive pronoun
IT’S means it is; it’s is a contraction
Pronunciation:
They are pronounced ih-t-s or /ɪts/.
Sentence:
That box. Yes, it’s on its side.
This may be helpful:
HOMOPHONES – words spelled differently but pronounced the same
Transcript:
Hello! It is Jennifer from Tarle speech with your two for Tuesday homophone lesson.
Homophones are words that are pronounced exactly the same way. They just have different spellings and different meanings. Our words today are:
its: the possessive pronoun and
it’s: the contraction of it is
So let’s take a look at these words. They’re actually spelled the same we just have that little apostrophe that makes it different. So to say these words correctly we’re going to start with that short ih sound. To make this sound, your mouth is going to be relatively relaxed, it is slightly open, and you can see the tip of my tongue just behind the top front teeth. It is not touching. You can see it like right here.
ih ih ih
If you close your mouth more and you smile, e, and your mouth becomes tense you’re going to have that e sound. So just relax your mouth a little bit.
My tongue is still relatively flat in my mouth. But the difference between the e and the ih that I can feel my tongue relaxing, and instead of having my tongue completely flat for that e, it’s going to pop down a little bit. And I can feel relaxation in the middle of my tongue there. Then we’re going to move to that t sound. To do this, touch the tip of your tongue to the back of your top front teeth. Air puffs out. Then pull the tip of your tongue down. It can actually be pointing all the way down into the bottom of your mouth. That is totally fine. Just as long as that air keeps moving out for that s sound. Let’s put it all together.
it’s it’s it’s it’s it’s it’s
Some of you may be asking, but what about eats? Doesn’t it sound like eats? It’s a little bit different. The e is the sound that we just talked about which is super flat tongue, which is really high in your mouth, and smiling lips that are tense.
eats eats eats
Relax the mouth. Relax the tongue.
it’s it’s it’s
And now for a sentence:
That box, yes, it’s on its side.
Give it a try I know people are going to notice the difference. If you found this helpful, please share us with your friends, don’t forget to give us a like. If you need more help check out our classes and products at Tarle speech thanks so much everyone have an amazing week!