Texas Court Reporter Practice Exam

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Which usage is correct in the following sentence: "(Its, It's) owner has left, so (its, it's) unknown what happened?"

Its/its
It's/it's
Its/it's
It's/its

The correct answer is: Its/its

The correct usage in the sentence is "Its owner has left, so it's unknown what happened." The term "its" is a possessive pronoun indicating that something belongs to the owner, meaning that the owner holds something in connection with "it." In this context, it indicates that the owner’s absence relates directly to the situation being described. On the other hand, "it's" is a contraction for "it is." In the second part of the sentence, "it's unknown" conveys that the information regarding what happened is not known, which requires the contraction. Therefore, the first part of the sentence correctly uses "its" because it conveys possession related to the owner, while the second part correctly uses "it's" as a contraction meaning "it is," referring to the state of unknown information. This illustrates the distinction between possessive forms and contractions within English grammar, where careful attention to context is essential for proper usage.