English Grammar | ITS or IT’S

ITS or IT’S?  What’s the difference?

One of the most common errors in English is to confuse IT’S and ITS.

Definition for IT’S

• It’s is ALWAYS a contraction.
• It usually means IT IS.
• It can also mean IT HAS.

Examples for IT’S:

• It’s a nice day. (It is a nice day.)
• It’s unusual, but I like it. (It is unusual.)
• I recognize that.It’s Jo’s sweater. (It is Jo’s sweater.)
• It’s been a good holiday, but we need to go home now. (It has been a good holiday.)

Definition for ITS

• ITS is a possessive adjective. You follow this with a noun (i.e., a person, place or thing).
• This means that the noun belongs to IT.

Examples for ITS:

• Our tree has bugs on its leaves.
• Isn’t this pretty?  Turn it on its side and you can see all sorts of colours.
• Our table has a scratch on one of its legs.

Why do so many people confuse IT and IT’S?

This is confusing because typically when a word is a possessive, it has an apostrophe.

For example, the car that belongs to Bob is Bob’s car. The dish that belongs to the dog is the dog’s dish.

Remember:

The car that belongs to Bob is his car and the dish that belongs to the dog is its dish.

Lesson on POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES

More FREE GRAMMAR Lessons