Is یا It's - اشتباهات متداول در انگلیسی

IS or IT’S - Most Common English Errors

Hello everyone and welcome back to English With Lucy. Today, I’ve got a very short little lesson, but I’m hoping to correct an error that I hear and see a lot of you make, especially students that have Spanish as their mother tongue. So, this lesson might not be relevant for everybody.

You might watch this and say “Lucy, do you think we’re stupid?” But no, I started teaching Spanish students, because I was teaching in Spain, and I always saw that they really, really struggled with this, because Spanish does not have the same structure as English regarding this particular grammar point. Yours, however, might do. So, if you get through this video and you find it irrelevant, every grammar topic can be relevant for everyone.

Anyway, let’s start with the lesson. Today, I’m going to talk about the difference between is and it’s. Now, before we get started, I want to just quickly talk to you about the pronunciation of these two words.

Because I hear a lot of people saying “ees,” “eets.” Both of these are incorrect. It should be firstly “ih,” a short vowel sound. Not “ee,” “ih.” So that’s the first mistake corrected. “Ih,” not “ee,” “ih.” Stop the voice with your throat. “Ih,” “ih. “Ee,” “ih.” Okay? See if you can guess what I’m going to talk about next, regarding the pronunciation of the two words. Is. It’s. Is. It’s. They end with a different phoneme, even though the phonemes are represented by the letter S. So is is a voiced, “zzz,” sound; it’s, unvoiced “sss” sound. So “iss” doesn’t exist. It’s is, is, it’s. Is, it’s.

Now if you apply this to your speech, you will instantly sound more native. Now the next error that I want to correct with these two little words is the repetition of the subject. Don’t repeat the subject. Spain it’s wonderful. Spain is wonderful. Which one is correct? What is the subject of this sentence? The subject is Spain. If I say “Spain it’s wonderful,” I’m actually saying “Spain it is wonderful,” and that means I’ve got two subjects. I have repeated the subject. So the it is not necessary. Spain, subject, is wonderful. Now, compare these two sentences: Today is sunny. Today it is sunny. What’s the difference? Which one is incorrect? Neither of them are incorrect. Both of them are correct. Today it is sunny. “It” refers to the weather.

Today is sunny. A very slight difference, so be careful with that. What does the “it” refer to? Another error that I hear made by Spanish speakers a lot is “no is,” okay? I had a wonderful, wonderful student, an amazing academic. If you gave him anything to do with computers, he would just sort it out, it was amazing. But he couldn’t get it into his head that it’s not “no is.” It is “it’s not,” or “isn’t.” But because in Spanish you say “no es,” “no es asi,” some people’s brains want to say in English “no is,” because it sounds so similar, doesn’t it? “No es,” “no is,” “no es,” “no is.”

But this isn’t, isn’t, isn’t the case. If I was to say “No es, no es el,” for example, I have to say “It’s not him,” or “It isn’t him.” I can’t say “No is him.” It doesn’t exist. Now, for some people that might seem quite basic. It’s hard not to translate things directly from your own language. “No,” “no.” “Es,” “is.” I can totally understand why a Spanish speaker would translate “no es” as “no is,” but take it from me, it’s not correct, and if you want to speak and sound like a native, then you need to start saying “it isn’t, isn’t.” She isn’t nice. It isn’t good. It’s not fair. Right, so the points you need to take away from today’s lesson. Pronunciation. It’s, is. It’s, is. “It’s” is “it is” together.

So “is” has no subject, and “it’s” has the subject. “It” is the subject. “It” is the subject in “it’s.” Hoo, this is quite a difficult topic to explain! It seems so simple, but actually it’s not simple. The next point, be very, very careful when repeating the subject. Do you need to repeat it? The answer is almost always no. Spain is different. Spain it’s different. Which one is it? It’s “is,” because Spain is the subject. And then the final point, with the negative, it’s never “no is,” it is always “it is not,” “it’s not,” “it isn’t.” That’s it for today’s lesson.