It's : Not That Difficult

Cursed spell-check. It's made us all lazy. So it's easy to overlook stuff. In today's post, we tackle :

It's vs. Its

Let's break it down :

It's = "It is." As you'll recall from a previous post, any time you see an apostrophe in a word, it indicates a combination of two separate words. It's a kind of "shortcut," if you will. "You're," for example, is the combination of "You + are." "Didn't" is the shortcut for "Did + not."

Its = "Belonging to it." Think about "his," "hers," "yours," "theirs," "ours" and "its." They're called (we think) possessive pronouns. All you need to worry about is that they don't ("do + not") require apostrophes. 

Examples :

It's funny to watch a dog wag its tail. ["It is funny to watch a dog wag (his / her) tail."]

It's true that a cheeseburger's taste can be thrown off by its bun-to-meat ratio. ["It is" true that a cheeseburger's taste can be thrown off by (that cheeseburger's) bun-to-meat ratio."]

But wait! What about the use of "It's" in the second sentence of this post? "It IS made us all lazy"? That doesn't ("does + not") make sense?

True. In this case, "It's" = "It has." That's the beauty of that wacky apostrophe. It can combine all kinds of word pairs.

"It'll" = "It will"

"It'd" = "It would"

"It's" = "It is" or "It has"

Another way to look at it : If you're writing about time or state of being, use "It's."

"It's been a long time."

"It's hot."

If you're writing about something that belongs to someone or something else, use "Its."

"The problem with the 1972 Ford Pinto was with its gas tank, which was susceptible to explosion."

In every case, just take a moment to re-read what you've written. Over time, it's easier to spot stuff like this if you give your writing its proper due diligence.

Next post : When writing about grammar, why does The Driver hear himself typing with a British accent?