Its/it’s

We said earlier that apostrophes should be used to indicate possession, but there is one exception to this rule, and that is the word “it”. Unsurprisingly, this exception gets lots of people confused.

The rules:

“It’s” is only ever used when short for “it is”.

“Its” indicates something belonging to something that isn’t masculine or feminine (like “his” and “hers”, but used when you’re not talking about a person).

If it helps, remember that inanimate objects can’t really possess something in the way a human can.

How not to do it:

Its snowing outside

The sofa looks great with it’s new cover

How to do it properly:

It’s snowing outside

The sofa looks great with its new cover