Certain sets of words in the English language tend to confuse people. I have found the following to be among them:
IT’S / ITS
It’s is a contraction of it is while its is a possessive pronoun referring to something belonging to it:
It’s only September, and already our big shade tree has lost its leaves.
Or, as stated on this popular wine-aficionado refrigerator magnet:
No wine before its time. It’s time!
The confusion here most likely lies in the fact that we think of possessives as having an apostrophe, which they do when formed from nouns. “It is the girl’s [singular possessive] ball” and “it is the girls’ [plural possessive] ball” both use an apostrophe to indicate that the ball belongs to the “girl” or “girls.” But “the ball belongs to the girls” [plural of “girl”] has no apostrophe.
However, it is a pronoun, not a noun, and pronouns (e.g., yours, theirs, ours) do not use an apostrophe when forming their possessives.
Hence, the possessive pronoun its contains no apostrophe while the contraction it’s, like other contractions (e.g., we’ll, he’d, who’s, I’ve), does.
2020 Ann Henry. All Rights Reserved.