The Grammar Doctor

it happening or its happening?
gerund

Q. I had my doubts about it happening or about its happening?

A It should be: I had my doubts about its happening.

"About its happening" is a prepositional phrase. The object of the preposition is "happening." "Happening" is a verb form used here as a noun. (-Ing words used as nouns are called gerunds.) "Its" functions as a possessive that modifies "happening." Pronouns or nouns that precede gerunds need to be in the possessive form. If we change the pronoun "its" to a noun, the noun would have to be possessive: I had my doubts about the event's happening.(not event happening)

Notice that the possessive pronoun (its) does not have an apostrophe, but the possessive noun (event's) has an apostrophe.


back to confused and misused

Back to Grammar Tips