different between there vs its

there

English

Alternative forms

  • (pronunciation spellings): dar, der, dere; dey
  • (obsolete): thare

Etymology

From Middle English there, ther, thare, thar, thore, from Old English þ?r, þ?r, þ?r (there; at that place), from Proto-West Germanic *þ?r, from Proto-Germanic *þar (at that place; there), from Proto-Indo-European *tar- (there), from demonstrative pronominal base *to- (the, that) + adverbial suffix *-r.

Cognate with Scots thar, thair (there), North Frisian dear, deer, där (there), Saterland Frisian deer (there), West Frisian dêr (there), Dutch daar (there), Low German dar (there), German da, dar- (there), Danish der (there), Norwegian der (there), Swedish där (there), Icelandic þar (in that place, there).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ð??(?)/, /ð??(?)/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ð???/
  • Maine accent IPA(key): /?ðe??/
  • (General Australian) IPA(key): /ðe?(?)/
  • Rhymes: -??(?)
  • Homophones: their, they're

Adverb

there (not comparable)

  1. (location) In a place or location (stated, implied or otherwise indicated) at some distance from the speaker (compare here).
    • 1623, William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors, Act 5, Scene 1,
      And in a dark and dankish vault at home / There left me and my man, both bound together;
    • 1769, King James Bible, Oxford Standard text, Genesis, 2, viii,
      The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
    • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, 1773, James Buchanan (editor), The First Six Books of Milton's Paradise Lost: Rendered into Grammatical Construction, page 381,
      To veil the heav'n, tho' darkne?s there might well / Seem twilight here.
  2. (figuratively) In that matter, relation, etc.; at that point, stage, etc., regarded as a distinct place.
    He did not stop there, but continued his speech.
    They patched up their differences, but matters did not end there.
    • 1597 William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 3, 1836, The Works of Shakespeare, Isaac, Tuckey, and Co., page 825,
      The law, that threaten’d death, becomes thy friend / And turns it to exile; there art thou happy.
  3. (location) To or into that place; thither.
    • a. 1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, prologue:
      A knight there was, and that a worthy man / []
    • 1623, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 1,
      And the rarest that e’er came there.
    • 1690, John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book II, Chapter IX, paragraph 4:
      So that wherever there is sense or perception, there some idea is actually produced, and present in the understanding.
    • 1769, King James Bible, Oxford Standard text, Job, 28, vii,
      There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen:
  4. (obsolete) Where, there where, in which place.
    • a. 1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Summoners's Prologue and Tale, in The Canterbury Tales,
      And spende hir good ther it is resonable;
      Note: Modern editions commonly render this instance of ther as where.
  5. In existence or in this world; see pronoun section below.
    • 1928 January, Captain Ferdinand Tuohy, "Why Don't We Fly?", in Popular Science, page 144:
      These firms do not want the truth to get out and are financing these flights in the hope of dazzling the public. Yet the record of the gas engine is there for all to see.

Usage notes

  • The use of there instead of they're (meaning they are) or their (possessive form of they) is a common error in English writing.
  • (to or into that place):
    • There is sometimes used by way of exclamation, calling attention to something, especially to something distant; such as in the phrases There, there!, See there and Look there!
    • There is often used as an expletive, and in this use, when it introduces a sentence or clause, the verb precedes its subject.
    • There is much used in composition, and often has the sense of a pronoun. See thereabout, thereafter, therefrom, etc.

Synonyms

  • (at or in a place): over there, away there (at some distance); thither (archaic); yonder (archaic or dialect)
  • (to or into that place): over there, away there (at some distance); thither (archaic); yonder (archaic or dialect)

Translations

Interjection

there

  1. Used to offer encouragement or sympathy.
    There, there. Everything is going to turn out all right.
  2. Used to express victory or completion.
    There! That knot should hold.

Translations

Noun

there (plural theres)

  1. That place.
  2. That status; that position.
    You rinse and de-string the green beans; I'll take it from there.

Translations

Pronoun

there

  1. Used as an expletive subject of be in its sense of “exist”, with the semantic, usually indefinite subject being postponed or (occasionally) implied.
    There are two apples on the table. [=Two apples are on the table.]
    There is no way to do it. [=No way to do it exists.]
    Is there an answer? [=Does an answer exist?]
    No, there isn't. [=No, one doesn't exist.]
    • 1908, C. H. Bovill (lyrics), Jerome D. Kern (music), There’s Something Rather Odd About Augustus, song from the musical Fluffy Ruffles,
      It's very sad but all the same, / There’s something rather odd about Augustus.
    • 1909, Leo Tolstoy, translator not mentioned, There are No Guilty People, in The Forged Coupon and Other Stories,
      There was a time when I tried to change my position, which was not in harmony with my conscience; [] .
    • 1918, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Constance Garnett {translator), Notes from Underground, Part 1, II,
      There are intentional and unintentional towns.
  2. Used with other intransitive verbs of existence, in the same sense, or with other intransitive verbs, adding a sense of existence.
    If x is a positive number, then there exists [=there is] a positive number y less than x.
    There remain several problems with this approach. [=Several problems remain with this approach.]
    Once upon a time, in a now-forgotten kingdom, there lived a woodsman with his wife. [=There was a woodsman, who lived with his wife.]
    There arose a great wind out of the east. [=There was now a great wind, arising in the east.]
    • 1895, Sabine Baring-Gould, A Book of Nursery Songs and Rhymes: Nursery Songs, XXII: The Tree in the Wood,
      All in a wood there grew a fine tree,
    • 1897, James Baldwin, The Story of Abraham Lincoln: The Kentucky Home, in Four Great Americans,
      Not far from Hodgensville, in Kentucky, there once lived a man whose name was Thomas Lincoln.
    • 1904, Uriel Waldo Cutler, Stories of King Arthur and His Knights, Chapter XXXI: How Sir Launcelot Found the Holy Grail,
      On a night, as he slept, there came a vision unto him, and a voice said, "Launcelot, arise up, and take thine armour, and enter into the first ship that thou shalt find."
  3. Used with other verbs, when raised.
    There seems to be some difficulty with the papers. [=It seems that there is some difficulty with the papers.]
    I expected there to be a simpler solution. [=I expected that there would be a simpler solution.]
    There are beginning to be complications. [=It's beginning to be the case that there are complications.]
  4. (in combination with certain prepositions, no longer productive) That.
    therefor, thereat, thereunder
  5. (colloquial) Appended to words of greeting etc.
    Hi there, young fellow.
    Oh, hello there, Bob, how are you doing?
    • 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)
      Hi there! I’m Anna and I live in Washington, D.C.

Usage notes

  • In formal English, the verb agrees with the semantic subject: “there is a tree”, “there are some trees”, “there seems to be a mistake”, “there seem to be some mistakes”, and so on. This is because the "there [form of be]" construction originally used, and could still be said to use, "there" as simply an adverb modifying "to be". However, the syntax is archaic enough that "there" is rarely recognized as an adverb. In colloquial usage, therefore, the verb is often found in the third-person singular form, even when the semantic subject is plural — “there’s some trees”, “there seems to be some mistakes” — but this is often considered incorrect.

Translations

Contraction

there

  1. Misspelling of they’re.

Determiner

there

  1. Misspelling of their.

Derived terms

See also

References

  • there at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

  • Ehret, Ether, Reeth, ether, rethe, theer, three

Middle English

Determiner

there

  1. Alternative form of þeir

there From the web:

  • what there to use
  • what there to do near me
  • what there an earthquake right now
  • what therefore is the charge of the balloon
  • what there do i use
  • what therefore means
  • what there to eat near me
  • what there just an earthquake


its

English

Alternative forms

  • it's (possessive form, now nonstandard)

Etymology

Equivalent to it +? -'s. From the earlier form it's (it +? 's), which is now considered nonstandard. Began to displace his as the possessive of the neuter pronoun in the Middle English period; had fully displaced it by the 1700s.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /?ts/
  • Rhymes: -?ts
  • Homophone: it's

Determiner

its

  1. Belonging to it. [from 16th c.]
    • 1751, G. Burnett, trans. Thomas More, Utopia:
      since I have been at the Pains to write it, if he consents to it's being published I will follow my Friend's Advice, and chiefly yours.
    • 1763, Authorized King James Version of the Bible, Oxford Standard Text, Leviticus 25:5:
      That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land. (originally "of it own accord" in the 1611 first edition)
    • 1989, Jasper Becker and John Gittings, The Guardian, 5 Jun 1989:
      The Chinese government is at war with its own people.

Derived terms

  • itsself

Translations

Contraction

its

  1. Misspelling of it's.

Pronoun

its

  1. The one (or ones) belonging to it. [from 17th c.]
    • 1645, Philip Wharton, 4th Baron Wharton, Letter to Ferdinando Fairfax, 6 February 1645:
      [...] both Houses have resolved to rob the North of a good friend of its and yours.
    • 2007 — Ian Austen, "Canadian Court Opens Up eBay Data to Tax Agency", New York Times, October 1, 2007:
      EBay Canada argued in court that the data sought by tax collectors was not its to give.
    • 1917 — Charles Henry Taylor, History of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago Vol.2 p.1259:
      ...the Board of Trade of Chicago can at least feel that it has played its part manfully and patriotically, and that no act of its has stood in the way of National victory.

Usage notes

  • In practice, its is commonly used as a determiner before a noun, but its use as a solo pronoun is generally avoided.
  • Its is now distinguished from it's (a contraction of "it is" or "it has"). For example, It's going to rain is equivalent to It is going to rain, and It's been raining for hours is equivalent to It has been raining for hours. However, the two are commonly confused, and using its where there should be it's (or vice versa) is a common mistake in written English.
  • Like it, its is usually avoided when referring to humans. Its is commonly used with animals when the gender is unknown or unimportant. With humans, person is used for a person whose gender is unknown or to refer to something that could be possessed by either gender, body or corpse is often used to refer to a dead person, and figure, shape, and silhouette are often used to refer to what someone sees as a person but can not see clearly enough to determine an identity or gender, e.g. The figure moved behind a bush, but Josh could see its shadow from the moonlight.

Quotations

  • For quotations using this term, see Citations:its.

Translations

Noun

its

  1. plural of it

See also

  • their

References

Anagrams

  • 'tis, -ist, IST, Ist, SIT, STI, Sit, TIS, TIs, is't, ist, sit, tis

Kalasha

Noun

its

  1. Alternative spelling of i??

its From the web:

  • what it's like
  • what it's like lyrics
  • what it's
  • what it's worth
  • what it's like chords
  • what it's like to be a bird
  • what its like to be a bat
  • what is safemoon
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