Should it be it, its, or it’s?

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

It

It is a pronoun used torefer to an inanimate object or animal that has previously been mentioned or isabout to be mentioned whose gender is either unknown or disregarded. I think weall have a pretty good idea of how to use it, but the other versionsleave us confused.

It’s

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

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

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

Its

I’ve had people tell methat 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 correctplural to use for it.

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

I hope I’ve cleared upany confusion you might have had about these words. Usually, if I run across itsor it’s in a sentence, I simply substitute it is to see if thesentence 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 ifthat doesn’t work, then I will probably rewrite the sentence.