Confusing the words ‘its’ and ‘it’s’ is a surprisingly common mistake. Unfortunately, it isn’t merely a spelling mistake but a grammar error, so repeated use of the incorrect form will lend a very unprofessional air to your writing.
The easy way to distinguish the two is to remember that ‘it’s’ is a contraction of ‘it is’. You might therefore write, ‘it’s a beautiful day for a walk’, meaning ‘it is a beautiful day for a walk’.
Although an apostrophe after a noun or name usually indicates the possessive, as in ‘that is Jesse’s book’, this isn’t the case for ‘it’.
The possessive of ‘it’ is simply ‘its’, with no apostrophe after the ‘s’ either. You should therefore write ‘the dog is chewing its bone’. Using the incorrect form, ‘the dog is chewing it’s bone’, means ‘the dog is chewing it is bone’, which makes no sense.
The basic rule to remember is:
-It’s = it is
-Its = belonging to/of it.
The word its’ simply does not exist and is incorrect.
The easy way to distinguish the two is to remember that ‘it’s’ is a contraction of ‘it is’. You might therefore write, ‘it’s a beautiful day for a walk’, meaning ‘it is a beautiful day for a walk’.
Although an apostrophe after a noun or name usually indicates the possessive, as in ‘that is Jesse’s book’, this isn’t the case for ‘it’.
The possessive of ‘it’ is simply ‘its’, with no apostrophe after the ‘s’ either. You should therefore write ‘the dog is chewing its bone’. Using the incorrect form, ‘the dog is chewing it’s bone’, means ‘the dog is chewing it is bone’, which makes no sense.
The basic rule to remember is:
-It’s = it is
-Its = belonging to/of it.
The word its’ simply does not exist and is incorrect.