The English language is one of the most famous languages in this world. But many of us who speak it generally learn from our family members, friends, or co-workers, instead of a book.
All of us, from total beginners to native speakers, tend to make mistakes in either the grammar, the sentence structure, or the words used in our speech. Therefore, this article will go over the differences between “It’s called” and “It called” so that you don’t get confused between the two terms.
Where does English come from?
But first, as always, let’s go over the wonderful history of the English language.
The English language began with an invasion. During the 5th century, the Anglos, Saxons, and Jutes invaded Britain after migrating across the Northern Sea.
Fun Fact: The words “England” and “English” come from the home and language of the Anglos, “Englaland” and “English.”
Since these three tribes spoke similar languages, they were able to successfully and thoroughly introduce Old English into Britain, which was spoken in 1100. While many phrases from the current English language have roots in Old English, a local English speaker now would not be able to understand a single sentence in Old English.
English soon went through a small transformation after 1066, when a French duke, William I (better known as William the Conquerer) successfully invaded and conquered England. With his rule, he introduced French to the elite society of England and added some traces of French to the English language.
This was known as Middle English and was spoken till 1500. Some experts say that Middle English was the preferred language of poets, as it was easier to understand compared to Old English. However, the modern speaker will still have difficulty understanding it.
Modern English as we know it started from the Great Vowel Shift, a lisp that made people pronounce vowels shorter and shorter.
During this time, the English Renaissance was responsible for the publishing of the very first English bestseller, Thomas Malory’s The Death of Arthur.
According to some, the first Bible was also fully translated for commoner use during this time and helped spread English far and wide.
To learn more about the wonderful history of the English language, please watch this animated video:
How widespread is English?
English is spread throughout the globe. English is the most widely spoken language today, with nearly 1,500 million total speakers and 375 million native speakers. It is followed by Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, and French.
English is the official language of approximately 50 countries and territories, including Canada, Ireland, Kenya, and Singapore.
Interestingly, English is not the official language of America, because the Founding Fathers recognized the country as a multilingual society (where people speak different languages), and therefore did not declare any official language.
What are contractions?
The earliest contractions can be found in Middle English, in the forms “ne were” (“were not”), “not” (“knows not”), and sit, which was a shortened form of sitteth.
While negative contractions were widely used at the time, they were not favored in formal writing, being viewed as inappropriate or informal. However, by the early 16th century, contractions began appearing in public media, to replicate the way people tended to talk.
The definition of a contraction is “the shortened version of a word (or group of words) that causes specific letters or sounds.” In most cases, the apostrophe is a contraction that represents the missing letters. The word contraction comes from the word contract, which means “to squeeze together”.
Some popular contractions that are frequently used are:
| Simple Form | Contracted Form |
| Is not | Isn’t |
| Will not | Won’t |
| Could have | Could’ve |
| Let us | Let’s |
It may be confusing at first, this is why there are certain grammatical rules to simplify contractions so that anyone can use them easily. For your convenience, we’ve listed some of them in this table:
| Uncontracted | Contraction | Examples |
| Not | -n’t | Isn’t (is not), Can’t (cannot), Won’t (will not) |
| Have | -‘ve | I’ve (I have), They’ve (they have) |
| Had/Would | -‘d | He’d (he had/would), I’d (I had/would) |
| Will | -‘ll | She’ll (she will), He’ll (he will) |
| Is | -‘s | He’s (he is), she’s (she is) |
| Are | -‘re | We’re (we are), they’re (they are) |
There are two types of contractions, positive and negative.
Positive contractions consist of a positive verb composition, and some examples are: I’ll, they’re, she’s, and he’d.
On the other hand, negative contractions consist of a negative verb composition (basically, they end with the word “not” or –n’t), and examples include: won’t, can’t, shouldn’t, and haven’t.
When using contractions, you should be careful to avoid misinterpreting them, as some contractions have double meanings.
What’s the difference? (It’s Called vs It Called)
The difference between “It’s called” and “It called” is actually pretty simple. “It’s called” uses the contraction “it’s”, which stands for “it is” or “it has”. It does not have any possessive meaning. If we wanted to use it in a sentence, we could say:
- “It’s been a good year.” Which means “It has been a good year”
- “We are about to reach a new town. It’s called Logo.” Which means “We are about to reach a new town. It is called Logo.”
So we can say that the contraction “It’s” is in passive voice, with the subject being labeled by someone or something else. This is significantly different than “It called”, which is in the active voice and in which the subject is calling out the object. For example:
“That cat is very strange. It called out to us three times right now.”
You cannot use “It’s called” and “It called” interchangeably, as they have completely different meanings. Let’s take a look at the following example as a demonstration:
- Rachel: “What is that thing on your kitchen counter?”
- Susan: “It’s called a vase.”
In this example, Susan has to reply with “It’s called” as she is the one labeling the object. In contrast, if she instead said, “It called a vase,”, then the sentence would become senseless and grammatically incorrect.
Apart from very specific examples, there is virtually no situation where you may have to use “It called”, as it doesn’t mean anything due to the lack of a verb. So you’re always better off going with “it’s called”.
Finally, “It’s called” is a transitive verb, while “It called” can be either a transitive verb or an intransitive verb.
A transitive verb is one that only makes sense when it is used with an object or noun. For example, in the phrase “She loves animals,” the verb “loves” is a transitive verb as it affects the object “animals”.
In contrast, intransitive verbs do not need an object with them to make sense. For example, in the sentence, “I want to leave early,” the word “leave” is an intransitive verb as it makes sense without an object.
Conclusion
Contractions are an important part of our everyday communication, and mastery over them will help you communicate better with other people. Now that you know the difference between “It’s called” and “It called”, you can use the appropriate form depending on the situation.