It’s and Its
Saturday, April 12th, 2003Inspired by this post at brownpau.com, I will rant here about the biggest mistake in apostrophe usage, using it’s instead of its (and vice-versa). This mistake has become so ubiquitous, I could see why people are getting confused. Here’s the proper usage:
It’s means it is or it has as in “It’s a nice day today” or “It’s become really popular these days.”
Its is similar to my, his, her, our and their.
Although it’s seems possessive as in “the dog’s collar,” it is not. Rather, its is the possessive pronoun and it doesn’t require an apostrophe.
Get it? Got it? Good.