“The cat lost it’s collar.”
This reads ‘the cat lost it is collar.’ Expand the contraction and the mistake is obvious.
Punctuation Entry 05 / 1605 60-second read Everyday
Its vs. It’s
Possessive versus contraction — a rare case where no apostrophe wins.
The comparisoni
“The cat lost its collar.”
Possessive ‘its’ takes no apostrophe, like his or hers.
More examplesii
01
Its a long drive from here.
It’s a long drive from here.
Expands to ‘It is a long drive’ — contraction, so apostrophe.
02
The restaurant changed it’s menu.
The restaurant changed its menu.
The menu belongs to the restaurant. Possessive ‘its’ takes no apostrophe.
The ruleiii
¶
IT’S = it is. ITS = belongs to it.
Only write IT’S when you could say IT IS or IT HAS. Otherwise use ITS.
Notesiv
Origin
‘Its’ is surprisingly young. Until about 1600, English used ‘his’ for neuter possession (‘the tree and his leaves’). ‘Its’ spelled with apostrophe was common in the 1600s — Shakespeare used both. The apostrophe-less ‘its’ only standardised in the 1800s.
Register
Universal. This is one of the most-searched misuses in English; getting it wrong in professional writing gets noticed.
Watch for
No English possessive pronoun (his, hers, its, ours, theirs, yours) takes an apostrophe. If you’re tempted to add one, you probably want the contraction instead.
Memory aidv
Remember it like this
Say the sentence out loud with ‘it is.’ If it sounds wrong, use ITS.
A bit of historyvi
Until about 1600, English used his for neuter possession — the tree shedding his leaves. Its as a separate word emerged in the late 16th century, and Shakespeare's First Folio uses both with and without an apostrophe. The apostrophe-less spelling stabilized only in the 18th and 19th centuries; the form is structurally young, which is part of why the rule still feels counterintuitive.
In the wildvii
Real-world-style usage — how this looks in a sentence people would actually write.
- It’s been a long year for the company, and its future depends on the next quarter.
- The cat groomed its paw — it’s been doing that all morning.
Spottedviii
Specimens from the editorial inbox — lines that did, in fact, get published.
“The company is proud of it’s record on safety.”
— A corporate annual report, 2020 — the opening paragraph
“Its been a difficult quarter.”
— A CFO’s earnings-call prepared remarks, 2023
Test yourselfix
Which is right?
Quick duel 4 questions · ~30 seconds
Which is right?