its

Etymology 1
Equivalent to. From the earlier form, which is now considered nonstandard. Began to displace as the possessive of the neuter pronoun in the Middle English period; had fully displaced it by the 1700s.

Determiner

 * 1) Belonging to it.
 * 2) * 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.
 * 1) * 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.

Translations

 * American Sign Language: FlatB@Chesthigh-FingerUp
 * Azerbaijani: onunku
 * Belarusian: яго́, яго́ны, яе́, свой
 * Bulgarian: не́гов,
 * Catalan:
 * Czech:
 * Danish: dens, dets
 * Dutch: ,
 * Esperanto: ,
 * Finnish:
 * French:, ,
 * Georgian: მისი, თავისი
 * German: ,
 * Gothic: 𐍃𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃
 * Greek:
 * Ancient: αὐτοῦ, αὐτῆς, αὐτοῦ
 * Greenlandic: uuma
 * Hawaiian: kona, kāna
 * Hungarian:, , -ja, -je
 * Icelandic:
 * Ido:
 * Interlingua: su
 * Italian:
 * Kalmyk: энүнә, терүнә
 * Latin: (non-reflexive),  (reflexive), suae (reflexive)
 * Norwegian: dens, dets
 * Old English: ,
 * Portuguese:, , ,
 * Russian:, ,
 * Serbo-Croatian:
 * Cyrillic: њѐгов
 * Roman: njègov
 * Slovene:
 * Sorbian:
 * Lower Sorbian: jogo
 * Spanish: ,
 * Swedish:
 * Turkish:
 * Ukrainian:, ,
 * Volapük:, ona
 * Zulu: possessive concord + khe, wo, lo, so, yo, lo, bo, kho

Pronoun

 * 1) The one (or ones) belonging to it.
 * 2) * 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.

Translations

 * American Sign Language: FlatB@Chesthigh-FingerUp
 * Bulgarian: не́гов,
 * Catalan:
 * Czech:
 * Danish: dens, dets
 * Dutch: ,
 * Esperanto:
 * Finnish:
 * French:, , ,
 * German: ,
 * Greek:, δικιά, , , , ,
 * Hungarian: ,
 * Ido:
 * Irish:
 * Latin:, , , illius
 * Polish:, , ,
 * Portuguese:, ,
 * Russian:, ,
 * Serbo-Croatian:
 * Cyrillic: њѐгов
 * Roman: njègov
 * Slovene:
 * Spanish:
 * Swedish:
 * Turkish:
 * Tuvan: ооңуу
 * Yakut: киниэнэ

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 (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, is used for a person whose gender is unknown or to refer to something that could be possessed by either gender,  or  is often used to refer to a dead person, and, , and  are often used to refer to what someone sees as a person but can't 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.

Etymology 2
.

Etymology 3
From.