It's vs Its

People often get confused when trying to decide whether to use its or it's.

It's is a contraction for "it is". Its is like "his", "hers" or "theirs" and can be loosely translated as "belonging to it". When trying to decide which to use, just remember this: it's is the same as "it is". Only use it's when you are trying to abbreviate it is. In all other cases, use its (without the apostrophe).

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Improve this chart It's Its
Meaning: Abbreviated form of "it is" "Its" is the possessive form of "it". So "its" means "belonging to it"

edit Examples of Its vs It's

  • It's a shame that the civilized world still faces the problems of starvation and war.
  • The United States is proud of its strong tradition of freedom of speech.
  • This computer learns from its mistakes and becomes better at playing chess.
  • He soon realized it's in his interest to plead guilty.

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Comments: It's vs Its

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Anonymous comments

"It's" is a contraction, where apostrophe's the norm. Lo, it's not to be taken for a possessive form of the pronoun "it"---now gather your wits: its possessive form is unapostrophized "its". -- Michael E. Skinner

64.53.214.184 on 2008-07-10 12:26:09

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  1. Grammar
  2. English Language
  3. Words
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