Its vs. It's

homophones it its possessive determiners subject pronouns

What is the difference between "its" and "it's"? How can we use each of them? Are they the same thing? Here, we will discuss the differences between them.

What's Causing the Confusion?

"It's" and "its" have the same pronunciation (they are homophones), but different grammatical categories, and therefore different uses in a sentence.

It's

It's is the contracted (shortened) form of 'it is', or 'it has'.

It's raining outside. Look! → It is raining outside. Look!

It's got to be a cruel joke. → It has got to be a cruel joke.

Possessive Form of 'It'

So, it is understandable if many would think that the possessive form of 'it' should be it's. But the possessive form of 'it' is "its" (with no apostrophes).

Can the Contracted Form Mean 'It Was?'

Although you might hear someone using the contracted form of 'was' in spoken language, but you should know that it is not grammatically correct. Unless there are obvious signs that the sentence is in the past tense, avoid using 's' as a contracted form of 'was'.

Its

Its is the possessive pronoun of 'it' showing possession or ownership by a thing non-human.

We use apostrophes to show possession for a noun. For example "The captain's" or "the cat's" is the possessive forms of 'captain' and 'cat' (as in 'the captain's boat or the cat's basket).

The dog chased its tail.

The car has its flaws, but I like it.

Bottom-line

Its' is not a word in the English language, so do not use this combination..

Comments

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His or Her vs. Their

In the modern day and age, writers are looking for ways to write generic sentences without using gender-based pronouns. One of the ways is to use 'their'.

Its vs. Their

Can we replace 'its' with 'their'? If yes, when can we do this? To know if they are truly interchangeable or not, don't waste another minute and read this part.

Its vs. His or Hers

Can we use 'its' instead of 'his' or 'hers'? If so, when? Are they truly interchangeable? To understand more about these pronouns, read this part.

Ours vs. Us

What is the difference between 'ours' and 'us'? They are both pronouns. They are both first-person plurals. But they are of different categories of pronouns.

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