His vs. He's

he his homophones possessive determiners possessive pronouns subject pronouns

"His" and "He's" have somewhat similar pronunciations, but different meanings or spelling. So what is their difference?

Why the Confusion?

'His' and 'He's' have similar pronunciations (/hɪz/ and /hiːz/), but are different in their meaning and usage.

Main Similarity and Difference

'His' and 'He's' are pronounced similarly. Furthermore, they are both third-person and they are both masculine. However, one of them is a contraction and the other is a possessive determiner and possessive pronoun.

His

'His' is the possessive form of 'he' which is used to indicate that something belongs to a male person or animal. 'His' can either be a possessive determiner or a possessive pronoun. For example:

Brian loves his girlfriend. He wants to marry her.

Here, 'his' is followed by another noun 'girlfriend'. Therefore, it is a determiner.

His was a bold choice. Not many people have that kind of courage.

Here, 'his' stands alone. Therefore, it is a possessive pronoun.

He's

'He's' is a contraction of 'he is' or 'he has'. It is used to combine the subject pronoun 'he' with the auxiliary verb 'be' or 'have' to form a verb phrase.

He's → He is
He's → He has

He's my brother, Alex. → He is my brother, Alex.

He's been very busy lately. → He has been very busy lately.

He's = He was?

Although you might hear someone use the contracted form of 'was' in spoken language, you should know that it is not grammatically correct.
Unless there are obvious signs that the sentence is in the past tense, avoid using 's' as the contracted form of 'was'.

Comments

One vs. You

If we want to talk about people in general, can we say, 'You must be responsible toward the environment' or 'one must be responsible toward the environment?'

Mine vs. My Own

'This is a duty of mine'. 'This is a duty of my own.' Which one of these sentences do you think is correct? Can we use both of them? What is the difference?

Mine vs. Mine's

'My' is the possessive adjective and 'mine' is the possessive pronoun, but what grammatical category does "mine's" fall under? Let's find out!

His or Her vs. Their

In the modern day and age, writers are looking for ways to write generic sentences without using gender-based pronouns. One of the ways is to use 'their'.

Its vs. It's

What is the difference between "its" and "it's"? How can we use each of them? Are they the same thing? Here, we will discuss the differences between them.

Its vs. Their

Can we replace 'its' with 'their'? If yes, when can we do this? To know if they are truly interchangeable or not, don't waste another minute and read this part.

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