Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[howtowhyis]

Which should I use.
'They eat leaves. Its a favorite food.' Can I use 'its' to take the place of 'leaves'?
Or, 'They eat leaves. It's a favorite food.' 'It' takes the place of 'leaves' but 'leaves' is plural so can I use 'it' for 'leaves'?

[CP]

Lots of people confuse "it's" and "its." The first one always means "it is" while the second one means "of it" or "belonging to it."

If it were "he" instead of "it," it wouldn't be a problem: No one confuses "he's" with "his."

So here you want "it's": "It's / it is a favorite food."

The problem with this pair of sentences is that "it" (singular) refers to "leaves" (plural), but "They are a favorite food" doesn't sound much better.

I would change it to: "Their favorite food is leaves."
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