Should it be it, its, or it’s?

I don’t know what this collection of words is called, I don’t think they fit the definition of homonyms. But there certainly is a bunch of confusion about them, so why don’t we try to figure them out? The truth is, I even catch myself trying to use the wrong one from time to time.

It

It is a pronoun used to refer to an inanimate object or animal that has previously been mentioned or is about to be mentioned whose gender is either unknown or disregarded. I think we all have a pretty good idea of how to use it, but the other versions leave us confused.

It’s

Let’s look at the contraction next, it’s. This is not the possessive of it. As a contraction, it always stands for it is or it was. If you have a sentence with it’s in it, and substituting in it is or it was turns the sentence to nonsense, it’s is not the correct word to use.

“It’s décor was unusual” is wrong because “It is décor was unusual” doesn’t make sense.

“It’s a shame she did so poorly on her test” is correct because “It is a shame she did so poorly on her test” does make sense.

Its

I’ve had people tell me that its is the plural of it. But if you have more than one it, you usually switch pronouns to they or them, so its is not the correct plural to use for it.

Despite its not having an apostrophe, its is the possessive form of it. “The dog wagged its tail” is correct. “Its a beautiful day” is not correct because it doesn’t possess the day. In fact, if you substitute ‘it is’ for its, you’ll find the beautiful day sentence makes sense, so the correct word to use is it’s.

I hope I’ve cleared up any confusion you might have had about these words. Usually, if I run across its or it’s in a sentence, I simply substitute it is to see if the sentence makes sense. If it does, then it’s is the correct word to use. If not, then I look to see what it possesses in the sentence. And if that doesn’t work, then I will probably rewrite the sentence.