Board Thread:Clean up Concerns/@comment-29644557-20171222012227

Hello everyone! Thank you so much for the support you showed to my last grammar lesson, I hope it comes in handy! We've got another one today, so here we go!

Its VS It's

So what is the difference between these two words: "its" and "it's"? They're pronounced the same. They look the same. Let me explain.

First off, in the English language, a contraction is the shortening of a word by combination or elision. Examples include "we would" changed to "we'd", "can not" changed to "can't", etc; shortened through use of an apostrophe ( ' ).

Also in the English language, there are possessive words. These are nouns or pronouns that signify possession or ownership. For example: "Nerd's post", "Austin's balloon", "Her party", etc; these words (with nouns) are ended with an apostrophe "s" ( 's ).

Now, the main difference between "it's" and "its" is that one is possesive, and one is a contraction.

"It's" is a contraction of the words "it is" (It's a great day)

"Its" is possessive, belonging to "it" (The dog showed its teeth)

But if "its" is possesive, why isn't it spelled "it's" with an apostrophe? Well, simply, it is to not confuse between the two. "Its" is one of the few words that breaks grammatical law in order to differenciate it from a homonym. In that word's case, it is actually grammatically accurate to not be gramatically accurate!

So "it's" is a contraction of the words "it is", and should only be used as such.

"Its" is a possessive, and should also only be used as such.

Now you know. 