Its or Its

Its or Its Why so confusing? Using its when you really meant its is a very common punctuation error, and it is easy to understand why it happens. The two forms sound identical. Not to worry, it is easy to eliminate this error from your writing if you ask yourself one simple question: Do I mean  it is or do I mean  something belongs to it? If it belongs, do not use an apostrophe it is not a contraction.   Its indicates possession.   Rules and Examples RULE: Use its when you mean it is, and use its when you mean belonging to it. INCORRECT:  Its  a trap.  CORRECT:  Its  a trap.    (Contraction) INCORRECT:  Its  really long.  CORRECT:  Its  really long.   (Contraction) CORRECT:  Its  really long tail was wagging back and forth.   (Possession) INCORRECT:  The tree is losing its leaves.  CORRECT:    The tree is losing  its  leaves.  (Possession) You can see how each of these easily-confused forms appears in the corpora on Lextutor below. It will give you an idea of the kinds of environments that people use each form most commonly.   CORPUS LINKS:  its,  its Its versus Its Practice Exercises Practice finding errors with its/its.Practice correcting errors with its/its. Please follow and like us: