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its ~ it’s:

[the same pronunciation; the letter 'i' rhymes with the letter 'i' in "ink"]

These two expressions are quite often confused.  Even the advertising and publishing companies make the mistake of confusing them.  Though these expressions seem simple, questions on them appear in almost all the competitive examinations, including TOEFL and GRCE.  We should be extremely careful in using them.

[The following two clippings, just the tip of an iceberg, from a very reputed newspaper show us the extent of the confusion these two expressions cause.  “ CBI interrogates Shiv Shankar’s Kin – Express News service -- :The Central Bureau of Investigation on the directions of it’s headquarters in Delhi has started interrogating one …” & “… But I have to use dupes and instead… The famed stuntman made his directorial debut with “Police Story”, a smash hit all over.  It’s other language versions too celebrated a 100 day run …”  -- In both the cases “its” (the one without an apostrophe) should be used.]

“Its” (without an apostrophe) is ‘the possessive form of the pronoun ‘it’, like ‘his, hers, yours, etc.’,

e.g.

The dog tried to bite its tail.

The baby is sucking at its thumb.

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“It’s” (with an apostrophe) is ‘the shortened form of “it is” or “it has”’,

e.g.

It’s raining heavily.  (= It is raining …)

It’s been raining since morning.  (= It has been raining …)

Common Errors:

1.

The dog sat before the fire-place, cleaning it’s paws.   [wrong]

The dog sat before the fire-place, cleaning its paws.     [right]

Its a nice house to live in with children.  [wrong]

It’s a nice house to live in with children. [right]

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