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Teachers & Schools
Its vs. It's
What’s the difference between its and it’s (spoiler alert: it’s more than just an apostrophe). This video covers the use of both of these words and how to figure out when to use which. Plus, as a bonus, it covers the difference between who’s and whose—two grammar concepts for the price of one.
| Conventions | Demonstrate command of capitalization, punctuation, and spelling |
| English | Grammar & Punctuation |
| English I EOC Assessment | Correct Spelling |
| Grammar & Punctuation | Grammar Punctuation |
| Language | English Language |
| Spelling | Correct Spelling |
Transcript
This word is a possessive pronoun, like “hers”, “ours”, or “yours”. You use “its”
like this. The cat has a spot on its back.
The cat likes to yowl at its owner. The cat makes a racket in its litterbox.
The back, the owner, and the litterbox all belong to the cat, so we use the possessive
pronoun “its”. “It's” with an apostrophe is a contraction
of two words, either “it is” or “it has”.
So, you could say, “It is my birthday”...
...or you could just shorten that to, “It's my birthday.”
You could say, “It has been the worst day of my life since that time I got a swirlie
in the third grade”...
...or you could shorten that to, “It's been the worst day of my life since Swirl-maggedon.”
Two other words that might confuse you are “whose” and “who's”...
...but the rule here is the same as the one for “its” and “it's”.
You use “whose”...
...that's “w-h-o-s-e”, no apostrophe...
...when you say things like, “Whose house are we wrapping tonight?”
You use “who's”...
...that's “w-h-o-apostrophe-s”...
...when you say things like, “Who's got the Charmin?”
Just remember, “its” is a possessive pronoun...
...and “it's”...
...with an apostrophe...
...is the contraction of “it is” or “it has”.
It's been real.