Choosing between its and it’s | The Apostrophe | Punctuation | Khan Academy

Hello Garans and hello Paige. Hi David! So, what are we working on today? Today, we're going to talk about the difference between "its" and "it's."

Oh, well, that sounds real tricky!

Yeah, but we'll be okay.

Okay, so "it's" with an apostrophe. So we have these two forms in English, and they mean very different things. Let's go through them really quick.

So, "it's" with an apostrophe is a contraction, right? What is it a contraction of?

It is or it has. As in, "It's a lovely day outside," or for "it has," like "It's been" - it has been one week since he looked at cheese. Sad! It's been a sad week.

It's been a sad week as opposed to "its." Can you walk me through "its"?

So, "its" is a possessive pronoun, and it's a little confusing because possessive usually uses an apostrophe too, but possessive pronouns don't use apostrophes.

So, you would say something like, "I like ribeye steak because of its rich flavor." That's a pretty groy-looking steak! No pink and green is not how you want your steak to look.

So, we frankly just use "its" where we would use "his" or "her" or "their" or "our." You would use "its," right? It's just that it's not a person.

So, if I were asking you, "Can I borrow your book?" that's kind of the same thing as "I like ribeye steak because of its flavor," right?

It's showing that the flavor belongs to the steak, just like the book belongs to me, right? So, flavor belongs to it; the book belongs to you.

So, this is the core distinction: if you're talking about anything that would be about possession, you use "its" - no apostrophe.

If you're trying to contract something "it is" or "it has," like "It's a lovely day outside," or "It's been one week since you looked at cheese," then you would use "it's" with an apostrophe, because it's a contraction. You're trying to cram more information into this one little phrase.

Precisely! Sweet! That's how you choose between "it's" apostrophe "s" and "its" no apostrophe "s."

You can learn anything, David! Out, Paige! Out!