Tip for writers - It's and Its

byLimaJeson

231 followers

11 years ago

I hope my last post, Tip for writers - There, their, they're helped you out. As mentioned in that post, my next tip for writers is about it's and its.They are commonly mistaken but I'll show you how to get them right. I think it will be easier to explain it's first.

It's

It's is a contraction. Which means that it is shorthand for "it is" or "it has". You use it's to join the two words together so you're being less formal. Think of the apostrophe (') as a little staple sticking the two words together. Here are some sentences using it's instead of "it is" and "it has":

• It's (it is) a big dog.

• It's (it has) got a long tail.

• It's (it is) lovely at the beach today.

• It's (it has) been a long day at the beach.

Do you see the common thread here? The apostrophe (') is replacing letters to make two words become one. If the sentence sounds right when you swap it's with "it is" or "it has", then you've got it right. Just always ask yourself "does it is or it has make sense in this sentence?". If it doesn't, you should be using the next word, its (notice there's no apostrophe in "its").

Its

Its is used for possession, but just for animals and inanimate things (not for humans because you use "his" or "her"). So if something belongs to an animal or an inanimate object, you use the word its. Here are some examples:

• The lion lost its prey. (The prey belongs to the lion. Also, if you said the lion lost it is prey, it doesn't make sense, so it can't be the joined word it's.)

• The circus lost its tent in the wind. (The tent belongs to the circus. Also, if you said the circus lost it is tent in the wind, it doesn't make sense.)

Note: Just to show you why you don't use 'its" for humans:

You say, "my brother lost his phone", you don't say "my brother lost its phone". That would just be rude!

I hope this has helped you out. Next in the series is "where", "wear" and "we're". Stay tuned and enjoy your writing.

Mila ✌