Its or it’s

The test: expand it

The Style Manual gives one test. If you can divide it’s into it is or it has, you need the apostrophe. If you can’t, the word is its, which shows that something belongs to it.

One detail: the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary notes that it’s stands for it has when has is an auxiliary verb, as in “It’s been ages”. So read it as “it has been”, not as a sign that something is owned.

Why its has no apostrophe

The Style Manual’s page on apostrophes opens with their two main jobs: they show possession, and they show contractions, where letters are left out. For nouns, possession takes an apostrophe: the committee’s report. So it is natural to expect it’s for “belonging to it”.

Pronouns follow a different rule. The Manual says plainly: don’t add an apostrophe to possessive pronouns, and that covers both the determiners that sit before a noun and the pronouns that stand in place of one. Its is a determiner, so it has no apostrophe. That leaves the apostrophe in it’s free for its other job: marking the missing letter in it is or it has.

The whole family, without apostrophes

The Oxford Learner’s Dictionary calls confusing its and it’s a common mistake in writing. The rule behind it is the same for every possessive form.

Forms from Cambridge’s table of possessives, which gives “Not: Are those gloves her’s?” and “Not: … proud of it’s ability” among its typical errors. The rule that none takes an apostrophe is the Style Manual’s.

Its, standing alone

Mine, yours and hers can stand in place of a noun. Its mostly can’t. Cambridge notes that we avoid using its as a possessive pronoun except with own (“a life of its own”), and that in answer to “Whose is this ball?” you would say “The dog’s”, not “Its”.

Set the right sort

Eight lines to try. Each line opens to show the answer.

1. ___ raining again.Answer

   It’s. It is raining again.

2. The committee has made ___ decision.Answer

   its. The decision belongs to the committee; “it is decision” makes no sense.

3. ___ been a long week.Answer

   It’s. It has been a long week.

4. The press needs ___ rollers cleaned.Answer

   its. The rollers belong to the press.

5. Every drawer has ___ own label.Answer

   its. Possession again, with own.

6. I think ___ time we checked the proofs.Answer

   it’s. It is time.

7. The cat licked ___ paw, then decided ___ dinnertime.Answer

   its, it’s. Its paw (possession); it is dinnertime.

8. Is this jacket yours or ___?Answer

   hers. A possessive pronoun, never “her’s”.

Nearby apostrophe slips

The same Style Manual page covers the mistakes that sit beside its:

• Plurals take no apostrophe. Fresh avocados, the 2020s, not avocado’s or 2020’s. The Manual calls this error the “greengrocer’s apostrophe”.
• Plural shortened forms take no apostrophe. MPs, not MP’s; but MPs’ entitlements for possession.
• Single letters and single digits are the exception. Dot your i’s and cross your t’s. The Manual says the apostrophe makes letter plurals easier to understand.