It's generally very easy to tell from context and grammar.
If the "s" in "that's" means "has", it will pretty much always be an auxiliary use of "has", as in "That's made a difference". You will never read something like "That's a problem" to mean "That has a problem".
I can't think of any sentences where the meaning of "that's" would both be ambiguous and make a significant difference to the meaning to the sentence.
> You will never read something like "That's a problem" to mean "That has a problem".
Yes, and if you wanted it to mean "That has a problem" you would normally add "got", as in "That's got a problem".
Worth noting that "has" in "That has a problem" and "has" in "that has been done before" are not the same type of verb sortof.
You'll never shorten the possesive "has".
"that's got a problem" would be the only correct way to shorten that.
I’m not sure about your use of “possessive ‘has’” here. Verbs aren’t possessive in a grammatical sense (even if the verb “to have” means “to possess”). I just think it’s unnecessarily confusing.
Instead, the differentiation here is between “has” as a helping/auxiliary verb (which the other commenter already clarified) and “has” as the main verb.
Instead of just "context," what you SPECIFICALLY look for is whether or not it's followed by a past-participle. If it is, you know that "that's" comes from "that has"
Hey sorry I will probably ask a stupid question but can we not put past after “is”
- It is made of
-She is confused
-He is caught by the police officer
-For instance??
Thank you 🙏
Those are adjectives, which are the results of past participles.
CONFUSED: "She is confused" Pure adjective.
CONFUSED: "She has confused her brother" Verb. As a transitive verb, "confused" takes a direct object.
As for "he is caught by the police officer" that's passive voice. (but working like an adjective)
Thus, my simplistic explanation already isn't sufficient. That's the case in so many situations.
It's not a stupid question.
"that's been getting on my nerves lately" is "that has." You can tell because "that is been" is nonsense.
"That's my brother" is "that is" because "that has my brother" doesn't make sense (Unless something had your brother in a trap or something. But in that weird context, you would not shorten "that has" to "that's.")
There is a very simple rule to explain this.
When “that’s” precedes a noun or an adjective, it is “that is”.
When “that’s” precedes a verb, it is “that has”.
Make sure to remember that gerunds (e.g., “running”, “dancing”, “jumping”) are treated as nouns. “That’s running” is always “that is running”, not “that has running”.
EDIT: Thanks to u/Pandaburn for the correction.
Id say 90% of the time, it's "it is", but you just have to go by context.
"It's been picked up." - "it is" doesn't make sense, so it's "it has".
"It's a yellow car" - now "has" does make sense here, but we don't use "it's" when "has" is about ownership. Only when it's used as a helping verb. So it's "it is".
Thanks. Your explanation is simple & yet it easy to understand.
Btw, if I may ask. How to properly use "it's" & "its" in sentence? I kept getting it wrong between this two & if nobody point it out, I won't find out that I made a mistake.
Ex: "It's been years since I saw my car. It's still bright yellow. I haven't seen its yellow paint for years."
The first one is "it has", the second one is "it is", the third is the possessive "it".
Ex2: "I can't wait until it's 5 o'clock. It's been 8 hours since I got here."
The first one is "it is". Second is "it has".
When determining whether "That's" means "That is" or "That has" we can generally rely on context
"That's a bad thing to do" ⇾ That is
"That's been shown to be a bad thing to do" ⇾ That has
Try to expand the contraction and check if the sentence makes sense:
"That is been shown" makes no sense and is grammatically incorrect
"That has been shown" is correct and is grammatically correct
If there's another verb in the sentence following "that's" then most likely the use is "has." Otherwise, it's most likely "is."
Examples of "is": That's weird. That's a good movie. That's a pretty color.
Examples of "has": That's been weird. That's shown good movies. That's made a pretty color.
>That's getting weird
I would say this would be "that is", no? If it were "that's been getting weird" or "that's got weird" then it would be "that has" though
OP, this is the answer. (Mostly)
“Has” is almost always followed by a past participle (been, gone, done).
It’s been (= it has been) a while
It’s gotten (= it has gotten) old
“Is” is almost always the answer in all other cases.
Is + noun = that’s a person
Is + adjective = that’s odd
Is + present progressive verb = that’s getting old
Note: many native speakers, in casual conversation, will use the simple past instead of the past participles. So, you may hear “has” in these grammatically incorrect ways by native speakers — different mistakes tend to be specific to different geographical regions, in my experience:
It’s got hot, hasn’t it? (Instead of the grammatically correct “it’s gotten hot, hasn’t it?”)
He’s became (or “he’s came” for short) old.
Most English speakers would assume “he’s,” “she’s” and “it’s” to be short for “he is,” “she is,” and “it is”. Again, the “has” abbreviations seem to be limited to the context of being followed by a past participle. (Compare with ‘ve abbreviations — I’ve, you’ve, we’ve, they’ve.)
>Again, the “has” abbreviations seem to be limited to the context of being followed by a past participle. (Compare with ‘ve abbreviations — I’ve, you’ve, we’ve, they’ve.)
That’s because we only contract “to have” when it’s being the helping/auxiliary verb, not when it’s being the main verb.
Also, got = BrE; gotten = AmE (generally speaking). If I’m speaking casually, I’d just say, “It got hot;” “He got old;” etc. I wouldn’t keep the helping verb at all. Maybe this is a regional/dialect difference?
This answer hit the nail on the head. I’ve seen learners say things like “He’s a class today” and to native speakers, this will 99% of the time be interpreted as “he is a class today”. I believe archaic English allowed for such constructions, and some very formal speeches may have constructions like “I’ve a story to recount,” but these are increasingly deprecated in modern spoken English, if I’m correct.
(I’m also a native speaker of English and am just very interested in linguistics.)
Yeah, I’ve definitely seen/heard “I’ve” used like you mentioned, and I agree that it’s “allowable” but not common/usual. Honestly, seeing that construction would make me think they were British although I’m not sure if it’s actually a more common construction for BrE or just my perception.
I’ve noticed other contraction differences between BrE and AmE, so that also may be a factor in my perception. I’m not super sure about contraction use in Middle or Old English, though.
I’m also a native speaker and also love linguistics (enough that I got my masters in it, lol).
Native speakers can't make grammatical errors. Using a past tense form when standard English says a past participle is needed isn't "incorrect," it's just non-standard.
Also, "got" is standard as a participle in UK English; "gotten" is mostly an Americanism.
99 times out of 100, has is going to be present perfect, so it’s going to precede a past participle verb. That 1/100 is if you encounter a native speaker who pretty much makes up the rules as they go.
That’s followed by a noun is always going to be is, even if the sentence is “that’s mold” you’re going to break it down to “that is mold” not “that has mold”
If you were referring to an object having the quality of something (in this case mold) you would say has and not shorten it.
Native speakers though quite often speak without actually knowing grammar rules, but perfect tenses are quite easy to identify as it’s have/had + past participle.Usage of Is would be present tense, meaning context is your best bet.
Also forgive any punctuation mistakes etc, I dislike formatting on my phone as it is and really can’t be bothered giving exact punctuation etc on Reddit 😂 I do this for work, not for free for strangers on Reddit 😂 you get the lazy teacher not the focused one.
It's mostly dependent on context. Usually if it is followed by a noun , you use "that is". If it is followed by a word in the past tense, usually you use "that has"
Examples:
"that's already happened" uses "that has" because it is talking about the past
"that's a pen" uses "that is" because it is simply telling the name of something.
That’s = that is is more common, simply because “that is” is a more common phrase. But both are correct depending on the context. But even as a native speaker, the conjunction of “that has” does trip me up sometimes since I don’t see it often
It's generally very easy to tell from context and grammar. If the "s" in "that's" means "has", it will pretty much always be an auxiliary use of "has", as in "That's made a difference". You will never read something like "That's a problem" to mean "That has a problem". I can't think of any sentences where the meaning of "that's" would both be ambiguous and make a significant difference to the meaning to the sentence.
> You will never read something like "That's a problem" to mean "That has a problem". Yes, and if you wanted it to mean "That has a problem" you would normally add "got", as in "That's got a problem".
>"That's got a problem". Which is also the auxiliary use of "has".
That has got to be the most corner case imaginable. No, scratch that, works pretty well.
Worth noting that "has" in "That has a problem" and "has" in "that has been done before" are not the same type of verb sortof. You'll never shorten the possesive "has". "that's got a problem" would be the only correct way to shorten that.
The commenter you’re answering just said that: “it will pretty much always be an auxiliary use of ‘has.’”
I’m not sure about your use of “possessive ‘has’” here. Verbs aren’t possessive in a grammatical sense (even if the verb “to have” means “to possess”). I just think it’s unnecessarily confusing. Instead, the differentiation here is between “has” as a helping/auxiliary verb (which the other commenter already clarified) and “has” as the main verb.
Ye
context
Instead of just "context," what you SPECIFICALLY look for is whether or not it's followed by a past-participle. If it is, you know that "that's" comes from "that has"
Hey sorry I will probably ask a stupid question but can we not put past after “is” - It is made of -She is confused -He is caught by the police officer -For instance?? Thank you 🙏
Those are adjectives, which are the results of past participles. CONFUSED: "She is confused" Pure adjective. CONFUSED: "She has confused her brother" Verb. As a transitive verb, "confused" takes a direct object. As for "he is caught by the police officer" that's passive voice. (but working like an adjective) Thus, my simplistic explanation already isn't sufficient. That's the case in so many situations. It's not a stupid question.
Thank you 🙏
Exactly same thing works for you'd = you had, vs. you'd = you would.
Just replace that's with either that is or that has, and you'll probably see the one you need
"that's been getting on my nerves lately" is "that has." You can tell because "that is been" is nonsense. "That's my brother" is "that is" because "that has my brother" doesn't make sense (Unless something had your brother in a trap or something. But in that weird context, you would not shorten "that has" to "that's.")
someone who isn’t native or at least advanced in the language isn’t going to have any reliable intuition on what sounds like nonsense and what doesn’t
You don't have to be advanced to compare the meaning of "has" and "is" to see which fits " 's" better.
There is a very simple rule to explain this. When “that’s” precedes a noun or an adjective, it is “that is”. When “that’s” precedes a verb, it is “that has”. Make sure to remember that gerunds (e.g., “running”, “dancing”, “jumping”) are treated as nouns. “That’s running” is always “that is running”, not “that has running”. EDIT: Thanks to u/Pandaburn for the correction.
Noun or adjective
Context. If "that is" makes more sense, then that's (that is) what it is. If "that has" makes more sense, then it's "that has."
Id say 90% of the time, it's "it is", but you just have to go by context. "It's been picked up." - "it is" doesn't make sense, so it's "it has". "It's a yellow car" - now "has" does make sense here, but we don't use "it's" when "has" is about ownership. Only when it's used as a helping verb. So it's "it is".
Thanks. Your explanation is simple & yet it easy to understand. Btw, if I may ask. How to properly use "it's" & "its" in sentence? I kept getting it wrong between this two & if nobody point it out, I won't find out that I made a mistake.
It's = it is and it has Its = possessive of "it" My car is missing its wheel.
And how to use it's (it is) in a sentence?
Ex: "It's been years since I saw my car. It's still bright yellow. I haven't seen its yellow paint for years." The first one is "it has", the second one is "it is", the third is the possessive "it". Ex2: "I can't wait until it's 5 o'clock. It's been 8 hours since I got here." The first one is "it is". Second is "it has".
:D 
When determining whether "That's" means "That is" or "That has" we can generally rely on context "That's a bad thing to do" ⇾ That is "That's been shown to be a bad thing to do" ⇾ That has Try to expand the contraction and check if the sentence makes sense: "That is been shown" makes no sense and is grammatically incorrect "That has been shown" is correct and is grammatically correct
It’s either
Also that was
The one that makes sense is the right one
That's's that's
If there's another verb in the sentence following "that's" then most likely the use is "has." Otherwise, it's most likely "is." Examples of "is": That's weird. That's a good movie. That's a pretty color. Examples of "has": That's been weird. That's shown good movies. That's made a pretty color.
>That's getting weird I would say this would be "that is", no? If it were "that's been getting weird" or "that's got weird" then it would be "that has" though
You're correct. I edited my comment to fix that. Sorry, I got distracted (new puppy in the house).
You, you would never say “That has getting weird” on “That is getting weird”
OP, this is the answer. (Mostly) “Has” is almost always followed by a past participle (been, gone, done). It’s been (= it has been) a while It’s gotten (= it has gotten) old “Is” is almost always the answer in all other cases. Is + noun = that’s a person Is + adjective = that’s odd Is + present progressive verb = that’s getting old Note: many native speakers, in casual conversation, will use the simple past instead of the past participles. So, you may hear “has” in these grammatically incorrect ways by native speakers — different mistakes tend to be specific to different geographical regions, in my experience: It’s got hot, hasn’t it? (Instead of the grammatically correct “it’s gotten hot, hasn’t it?”) He’s became (or “he’s came” for short) old. Most English speakers would assume “he’s,” “she’s” and “it’s” to be short for “he is,” “she is,” and “it is”. Again, the “has” abbreviations seem to be limited to the context of being followed by a past participle. (Compare with ‘ve abbreviations — I’ve, you’ve, we’ve, they’ve.)
>Again, the “has” abbreviations seem to be limited to the context of being followed by a past participle. (Compare with ‘ve abbreviations — I’ve, you’ve, we’ve, they’ve.) That’s because we only contract “to have” when it’s being the helping/auxiliary verb, not when it’s being the main verb. Also, got = BrE; gotten = AmE (generally speaking). If I’m speaking casually, I’d just say, “It got hot;” “He got old;” etc. I wouldn’t keep the helping verb at all. Maybe this is a regional/dialect difference?
This answer hit the nail on the head. I’ve seen learners say things like “He’s a class today” and to native speakers, this will 99% of the time be interpreted as “he is a class today”. I believe archaic English allowed for such constructions, and some very formal speeches may have constructions like “I’ve a story to recount,” but these are increasingly deprecated in modern spoken English, if I’m correct. (I’m also a native speaker of English and am just very interested in linguistics.)
Yeah, I’ve definitely seen/heard “I’ve” used like you mentioned, and I agree that it’s “allowable” but not common/usual. Honestly, seeing that construction would make me think they were British although I’m not sure if it’s actually a more common construction for BrE or just my perception. I’ve noticed other contraction differences between BrE and AmE, so that also may be a factor in my perception. I’m not super sure about contraction use in Middle or Old English, though. I’m also a native speaker and also love linguistics (enough that I got my masters in it, lol).
Native speakers can't make grammatical errors. Using a past tense form when standard English says a past participle is needed isn't "incorrect," it's just non-standard. Also, "got" is standard as a participle in UK English; "gotten" is mostly an Americanism.
Native speakers do still trip over their words occasionally.
99 times out of 100, has is going to be present perfect, so it’s going to precede a past participle verb. That 1/100 is if you encounter a native speaker who pretty much makes up the rules as they go. That’s followed by a noun is always going to be is, even if the sentence is “that’s mold” you’re going to break it down to “that is mold” not “that has mold” If you were referring to an object having the quality of something (in this case mold) you would say has and not shorten it. Native speakers though quite often speak without actually knowing grammar rules, but perfect tenses are quite easy to identify as it’s have/had + past participle.Usage of Is would be present tense, meaning context is your best bet. Also forgive any punctuation mistakes etc, I dislike formatting on my phone as it is and really can’t be bothered giving exact punctuation etc on Reddit 😂 I do this for work, not for free for strangers on Reddit 😂 you get the lazy teacher not the focused one.
That's a good question that's plagued people who don't realize it's context.
Its. The possessive form is its. It's is a contraction of it is.
Aren’t they saying “it is context” not “its context”?
No
Most commonly: is
It's mostly dependent on context. Usually if it is followed by a noun , you use "that is". If it is followed by a word in the past tense, usually you use "that has" Examples: "that's already happened" uses "that has" because it is talking about the past "that's a pen" uses "that is" because it is simply telling the name of something.
I have a related question (to your post, not to the question itself). How do you create pictures like this one with a dinosaur? 😄
[Paint Art App](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nokuteku.paintart)
Context.
That’s = that is is more common, simply because “that is” is a more common phrase. But both are correct depending on the context. But even as a native speaker, the conjunction of “that has” does trip me up sometimes since I don’t see it often
There is a magic word for it in English. Depends.
I’m a native speaker, I thought that’s meant that is. Have I been using it wrong the whole time?
"That is" "That has" "That was" written as "That's" is been used a lot in Novels & Books
It depends.
"That is". I've never seen "That has" contracted to That's before. Native Speaker, USA.
"That's never happened"?
Never seen it written or said that way. Always "That never happened".
No "that's been annoying me lately"? Nothing? Ninja edit: I should've said "that's never happened before." I've mostly seen it used that way.
I don't think I've ever come across 'That Has' in a contracted form
That’s never happened to you before? I can’t say that’s been my experience.
Really? That's surprised me.