Homophones: Its vs. It’s
Homophones sounds alike: its vs. it's
Twitter has lots of great fodder for conversation. People even tweet about homophones. Heather Armstrong, also known as Dooce,recently tweeted:
Really? Your pet peeve is the incorrect usage of “its” vs. “it’s”? That’s funny, because I was just talking to Jon about assholes.
I laughed as I read this tweet and thought, Well, I guess that makes me an asshole.
Pet Peeves
On a more serious note, Heather’s comment got me thinking about pet peeves. While there are many legitimate pet peeves that one might find offensive or annoying, I think misuse of its vs. it’s should fall fairly low on the scale of what’s wrong with the world and the people in it. If seeing these words used improperly sends you into a fit of rage, then you probably need to get your priorities in order. You probably are, in fact, an asshole.
Generally speaking, my pet peeves usually involve people mistreating each other and being inconsiderate. Block a doorway and refuse to step aside when someone says “excuse me,” or stand there gawking when someone has fallen and can’t get up. Yep, those are my real pet peeves.
But if we’re talking about the pet peeves we have as readers and writers, then its vs. it’s definitely ranks high, even though these two words are homophones.
Is That Harsh?
Just because the confusion of its vs. it’s makes me crinkle my nose and think “Get thee to a dictionary!” does not mean that if I see this mistake I’m going to stop reading your blog or throw your novel into the recycling bin. It’s really not that big of a deal and is exactly the kind of typo that’s outweighed by good, strong writing.
Maybe I’m not an asshole after all.
However, I feel that writers need to take a little pride in their work. That means learning how to spell small, three-letter words, and spell them correctly.
But I get it. Its and it’s are among the most difficult homophones to learn. I remember back in high school, I avoided using them altogether – simply because I was too lazy to look them up and memorize them. To make matters even more confusing, these two rebellious homophones thwart the standard rules of good grammar and proper English with a big exception to those rules we were all taught and diligently memorized.
Its vs. It’s
According to Wikipedia, the word it is a “third-person singular neuter (it) – used for objects and animals whose sex is unknown and as a dummy subject, e.g. ‘It is raining.’”
One of the most common spelling mistakes happens when people try to add possession or pluralization to the word it. Interestingly, this word cannot be pluralized, but it can be paired with the word is (it is) and then contracted (it’s).
Confused yet? Let’s clarify.
“Its” – the Exception to the Rule
Normally we add an s to words that we want to pluralize, and we add an apostrophe-s to show possession. A third form is adding an s followed by an apostrophe to show plural possession.
Luckily, it is always singular, so we need not ever worry about making it plural. That means we can also skip over the plural possession entirely.
But what about when it owns something?
You’d expect that to show ownership, you’d simply add apostrophe-s to the word it. But that’s not the case. As I mentioned earlier, it has chosen to forgo the normal rules of grammar. So, we do it in reverse.
When it owns something, we add the s without the apostrophe, and we get its.
Example:
There is the car. It has wheels. Its wheels are round.
See? No apostrophe when something belongs to “it.”
It’s Not Plural or Possessed
The word it’s is neither plural nor possessive. When the apostrophe-s is added to the word it, you’ve got a contraction, or a shortening of two words. In this case, the phrase it is is being shortened or contracted.
If you have a hard time remembering this, try saying your sentence or phrase by replacing its or it’s with it is. If it is works, then you have a contraction and the apostrophe is required. If not, then you have possession and just an s, without the apostrophe, will do.
Got any handy tips for remembering its vs. it’s? Share yours in the comments!
Tweet Me Some Good Stuff and Homophones
By the way, you can connect with me on Twitter if you’d like: twitter.com/melissadonovan. Maybe your next tweet will inspire my next post. Oh, and tweet me some homophones please!
Are there any homophones that constantly confuse you? How about ones that grate on your nerves when others use them incorrectly? Talk about it in the comments.
Melissa Donovan is a website designer and copywriter. She writes fiction and poetry and is the founder and editor of Writing Forward, a blog packed with creative writing tips and ideas.
Lol I love your comments on people who get worked up over this. I know exactly what you mean. A lot of times it’s like come on, I will recognize the error and try and tell them their mistake, but it’s not worth getting worked up over!
Overall, a nice informative post.
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I’ve actually never seen anyone get that worked up over grammar but I’m sure those people are out there. I’m all about prioritizing. Sure, bad grammar can be a nuisance but it’s not worth a tantrum – at least not usually. I guess there could be instances in a law firm or some such place where grammar mistakes can cost millions of dollars or affect the outcome of a trial. That might be worth getting upset over, but then the upset isn’t really over the grammar, is it?
Melissa, I’ve known assholes. I’ve worked with assholes. You, madam, are no asshole.
This is one of those little burrs under my saddle as well. Someone once put the its/it’s rule to me very simply in a way that summed it up: its is part of a three-word boxed set, along with his and hers. I hardly ever see someone write “hi’s”. It’s the same thing for its.
And then of course, there’s him/whom… but that’s for another day.
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Oh yes, I already did a post on who/whom, which included the “him” tip. I’ve never heard the his/hers method of remembering but it’s a good one and I’ll include it here if and when I update this post. I appreciate you thinking that I’m not an asshole
Beautiful prose and I like the way you winded around back to your point and lessons.
One thing I’ve noticed is that although I may know some of the rules, something happens between me and the output. A friend mailed me the other day about some typos I had in a post. Interestingly, the source was right (well, correct if I want to be technically accurate.) The translation was wrong. Something about the CSS placed apostrophes in the wrong places and it was really weird. So weird that I had to send my friend screen captures to show that it wasn’t me, but the tools. Sometimes auto-magic completions and auto-correctors and auto-magic translations and transforms get in the way. Other times, I just mess up
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Oh yeah. I’ve seen that on several blogs (I think even my own) where the code goes out of order and displays funky punctuation. I notice it a lot with apostrophes. I wonder what causes that – seems like something that should be ironed out by now.
I think it might have something to do with how things are taught as well.
“It’s” should be taught along with “they’re”, “I’m”, “there’s”, “you’re” etc. Then it will be more clear why it’s spelled that way. If, however, it’s taught with something like “Mary’s”, “Peter’s”, it will be more confusing.
Get these things straight or SAT II will get you! Hehe.
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Good point Kelvin. Yes, I think one of the problems is that these homophone spellings are simply not being taught in school, which is a shame. I know good grammar is not the be-all-end-all of knowledge, but even for non-writers, these types of mistakes can affect how people perceive you and whether or not you get a job (i.e. poor spelling on a resume).
Makes perfect sense to me! I’ve got a whole BUNCH of grammatical pet peeves (grin). (And yes, it’s/its is one of them … but then, I wrote that post months ago!
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Heheh. One of these days one of us should do a post on grammatical pet peeves. It could be a long one!
Move over, asshole. Here comes the first mate.
)
It’s a simple mistake, but it’s a simpler fix. That’s what burns about it. Oh, and while we’re at it, I go completely berserk over the misuse of “then” and “than.” I have a college-educated friend who can’t get it right even after I’ve repeated her words back to her in email the CORRECT way (not wanting to be rude and give her a grammar lesson).
My Vietnamese student can get it right – why can’t Americans?
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Because your Vietnamese student is trying to learn the language. Americans aren’t.
I have to agree with you there Gabriel.
Heheh. You guys have me laughing a lot today
Yes, that’s what burns me too. If people would just take fifteen minutes to learn this stuff, they’d know it for life, and that’s a worthwhile investment of time. I know that for some, this material can be quite difficult but a lot of people are just too lazy. Grrr!
I think the mix up in the usage of it’s and its, their and they’re and others like these, distracts the reader from the content. When you put your writing out there for everyone to read, I think you need put some effort into getting it right grammatically.
What bugs me most is when teachers make those mistakes. That’s just not right.
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Absolutely! I always get snagged on grammar and spelling errors when I’m reading. Sure, there are a few gifted writers who are so mesmerizing that I may barely notice typos and minor mistakes, but that is the exception rather than the rule. Teachers should definitely know this stuff. No question about that.
Hi Melissa – I don’t think you are an asshole. The folk commenting on other blogs and whinging about their typos are assholes – but that is a completely different thing.
I don’t have any tips for remembering the difference between it is and its. I’m just too lazy to type it is, so I use it’s.
Hi Cath! Thanks
I haven’t seen too much whining about grammar on other blogs (maybe I need to get out more) but I do think that it’s legitimate to have grammar-related pet peeves though perhaps these peeves are best kept to oneself.
I thought I had it all understood, then I got completely confused. What I was taught was the last paragraph you wrote, which put my mind back at ease. As far as I know (or can remember), I never had any problems with these words… hopefully I’m not jinxing myself and I’m writing the wrong “its” a lot more than I used to now that I said that.
My writing pet peeve is punctuations. Or the lack of them. Mostly in text messages and emails. A friend sent me an email from another friend that contained about 15 different thoughts/sentences/phrases but contained only 1 (one) period. And it wasn’t at the end of the “paragraph.” I almost started writing on my screen with a red marker.
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