English Lesson 3: Correct Use of Its and It’s
March 29th, 2008Of all the instances of grammatical errors that occur both online and offline, the misuse of its and it’s is probably the single most prevalent example of poor English usage that I have encountered. Interestingly, it is also one of the easiest kinds of mistakes to avoid. If you’re (not your) confused about which word to use, the rule is actually quite simple.
Use it’s (with the apostrophe) whenever you would logically use “it is” or “it has” in the sentence; it’s (not its) a contraction of two separate words. Otherwise, use its (without the apostrophe), which is the possessive adjective form of the pronoun it. This word is used in a similar fashion to other possessive adjectives such as my, your, their, his, her, and our.
Although its usage is less common than the other variants, I should point out that its’ (with the apostrophe after the s) is simply invalid syntax and should never be used in a proper English sentence unless you have some strange desire to look like an ignorant fool. Now let us look at some examples of correct and incorrect usage:
Incorrect:
The sign reads: KEEP SOURCES OF IGNITION INCLUDING ALL VEHICLES, AT LEAST 1.5 m (5 FEET) FROM THE TANK, IT’S ACCESSORIES, AND IT’S ENCLOSURE
BZZZZZT!
Correct: KEEP ALL SOURCES OF IGNITION (INCLUDING VEHICLES) AT LEAST 1.5 m (5 FEET) FROM THE TANK, ITS ACCESSORIES, AND ITS ENCLOSURE
Incorrect:
The sign reads: ITS THE LAW
PLEASE LEASH, CURB AND CLEAN UP AFTER YOUR DOG!
BZZZZZT!
Correct: IT’S THE LAW
PLEASE LEASH, CURB, AND CLEAN UP AFTER YOUR DOG!
Finally, here is an example of the its’ abomination:
Incorrect: A society abandons its citizens, And Its’ citizens abandon its’ society — J. Ray Rice at blog.itsallaboutabandonment.com
BZZZZZT!
Correct: When a society abandons its citizens, the citizens will abandon their society.
For next week, if we continue with the current trend of covering the most commonly confused groups of homonyms, I will probably address the to vs. too vs. two issue. However, I am open to alternatives if there are other grammar-related issues that you would like to see addressed first.
What intrigued me about this article was the photos. I am sure I walk past misspelled signs just like these, on a daily basis, I will have to start keeping my eyes open.
@Arnold:
Yes, these kinds of misspelled signs are surprisingly common. Other places to look for English usage errors are instruction manuals, print advertisements, and any text-based content in software programs (for example, PC or console games).
The most common errors that I have seen from these kinds of sources besides the its vs. it’s issue mentioned above include “you” in place of “your” (usually a typo) and various instances where whole words are simply left out of a sentence. These are the types of mistakes that are not caught by spell checkers but can be fixed after a thorough proofreading.
This just reminds me…I saw an article in the New York times today. I’m sure you know they have a tendency of breaking articles into two parts right?
Well part 1 had “its” in the title (correct)
part 2 had “it’s” in the title (incorrect).
and this wasn’t a small title either. It was a big title. :D. It’s weird that the title on the original excerpt was right, but not on the 2nd excerpt. Different proofers perhaps? (and proofer 2 obviously would need to go back to school).
Thank you for the wonderful article. It was written so clearly. It was the beneficial indeed. I don’t hear English on my daily walk and know the words only from my Lithuanian-English dictionary. Therefore I was doubly happy to come to your blog. While reading I have learned a lot. Thank you once again.
Very nice piece. I have a total loathing of rogue apostrophes (as I call them) which includes the ones mistakenly put before s to make a possessive when it shouldn’t be. They actually grate on my nerves and I hate having to sit near signs with apostrophes out of place (in restaurants) for example as I can’t stop looking at them!
Thanks for that very clear statement on correct and incorrect use. I have to admit, for the past 25 years or so, it looks like I have been using “it’s” incorrectly - how embarrassing!
Now I must go through a rather unpalatable number of websites to check the content …
In a token defence of those people who misuse it’s, when I was much MUCH younger, I often got it wrong based on the fact that if one is talking about something belonging to someone eg. “..it was John’s football….” the apostrophe applies, and it is (it’s) usually along those lines that the mistake occurs. For example, “the cat lost it’s toy mouse….” or “….the company and it’s employees……” has a certain grammatical logic to it, albeit misplaced. Meanwhile, one that REALLY gets my goat, is when people say “xyz is really quite unique” aaaarrgghh. By gum, I feel better for that.
Can anyone explain to me how one decides when to use “affect” and when to use “effect”? Is it simply that affected is when a “change” is self imposed, as in “…….his manner was decidedly affected……..” ie not genuine, and effected is when change is caused by an outside force, as in “………but the wind effected the game badly…..”?
I MUST get out more!
@John:
I have already covered the affect vs. effect issue here:
Correct Use of Affect and Effect
In your examples, we would use “affected” in both cases because we are referring to something being changed and using the word as a verb. Most of the time, we write “effect” when we’re using it as a noun; however, there are exceptions, so you might want to read through my article to learn about all of the relevant nuances.
Meanwhile, remember that you can click on the “English Usage” category in the sidebar to look at the other grammar-related posts that have already been published. If there is a topic you would like to read about that is not included here, you can always suggest it in the comment section and I might cover it in a future post.
THANK YOU for this - makes up for years of neglect and confusion!
Oh dear.
Oh dear dear dear.
It seems that I have been confusing my its.
It’s concerning.
When it’s looked at on its own though, conceptually,
it’s not that much of a problem.
What is a problem though, is now I feel the urge to traul through all my blog posts.
Humph.
Why did I have to type “correct use of it’s” in the google thing.