Punctuation It's or Its

So I always thought that if "it" was being used in possessive, it should be it's, however, I have seen several instances of "its" being used. Nor does technology help, as Microsoft Word spellchecks any use of "it's" and Grammarly spellchecks use of 'its".

What is the actual, correct punctuation of It's or Its, or is it one of those things that is up to personal preference?

 

It's = it is
its = possessed

Easiest way to look at it for me is if I read it and insert "is" after the it and it makes sense, then it's <--

 

My view is:

1. It's is the abbreviation for 'It is'

2. Its = belonging to or associated with a thing previously mentioned or easily identified. e.g. turn the camera on its side; the book is better than its cover suggests.

 

This is one of the things I've understood for years, but I make the mistake all the time when typing at a moderate or fast wpm. If you see this mistake it in an article from a reputable site, it was probably this type of error and the writer or editor just didn't catch it.

If it's an article from Yahoo or Medium it's probably a toss up whether the author doesn't understand the rule or made a typo.

Their/there is another one I often make.

Lie/lay is one that I doubt I make or will make, because while I don't know the conjugations by heart, when the word comes up in a writing session I either look it up or flag it for review later.

But: it/it's, their/there as well as your/you're are easy to miss in a first draft and even a later edit. At least for me.

 

Good old English, keeping us on our toes 24 hours a day.

 

For some reason I thought the original Spider Man cartoon intro had this common error, but I researched it just now and it's actually a totally different error in spelling. Not sure how they didn't catch it. It COULD be part of the plot of that particular episode, but that's an equally bad error to still use it in the intro without context (Fine 'Jewlery' @00:38):

 

I remember it by remembering that "his" doesn't have an apostrophe, so the possessive of "it" also should not have an apostrophe.

 

Okay, but what about names? Do the same rules apply?

Its head was huge. ---- A possessive

It's ugly. ---- A contraction of it is.


But what about...

Johns head was huge. ---- A possessive, but autocorrect always wants to put in an apostrophe.

John's ugly. ---- Again a simple contraction of John is.

So what are the rues here?

 

John's head was huge is correct. I don't know if there is any universal rule for possessives, but will note that his/its as mentioned by @SapereAude are possessives that modify things in a pronoun sense, while John is a proper noun so it takes an apostrophe. Not sure if there is anything useful here.

 

One can only rue that rules in English exist mainly to be broken somewhere along the line.

 

Possessives:

Its ugly head... (the ugly head belonging to it)
John's ugly head... (the ugly head belonging to John)
Jess's ugly head... (the ugly head belonging to Jess)
The cows' ugly heads... (the ugly heads belonging to the cows)

 

Ugly is such a judgmental term. Perhaps we should say "beauty-divergent." As in "Jealousy raised its beauty-divergent head."

 

Don't feel bad. Thomas Jefferson used "it's" as a possessive. Back in the 18th century, things hadn't been standardized yet. But now it's pretty much settled to everyone's satisfaction that "it's" is reserved as an abbreviation for "it is." (And why is abbreviation such a long word?)

 

Of course, I think Jess' is also correct, according to the Associated Press guidelines, but I prefer the version where a singular apostrophe is only used if the word itself is plural (like if I had two bosses: my bosses' meeting).

 

I think I will rue the many times I don't pay attention and post when I am tired.

This is one of the things that must confuse people who learn English as a second language. So many arbitrary rules. Always put an apostrophe after a noun when adding "s" - except when... and except when... and except when...

 

"I before E except after C or in Keith."

Learned that from a friend of mine. Guess what his name was?

It's not really true though, it's a pretty weird rule.

 

I heard one from a guy about one generation older than me: 'I before E except after C, or like 'A' in weigh'

 

Here's another;

They're - abbreviation for 'they are'.

 

Try being an English speaker learning Spanish. Compared to French, Spanish seems to have more exceptions to most rules than they have words to follow the "rule."

And in English we can always skip the apostrophe and say/write it the way they do in French and Spanish. But "I went to the house of my friend," while grammatically correct, sounds rather stilted in English.

Or, "The pen of my aunt is on the bureau of my Uncle John." (Does anyone besides me remember that little ditty? "La plume de ma tante est sur le bureau de mon oncle John." I don't remember whether I first heard that from my grandparents -- both of whom spoke French, sort of -- or when I first took French in high school.)

 

"...except in weird cases."

One sees many mistakes with "seize" and "siege" as well. Less often with "seizure."

 

And "it has." "It's been a long time, hasn't it?" is quite common.

There's always a verb, in any case.

I tell people just to associate "its" and "his," since "its" is only directly comparable to our, your, his, her, and their.

While "its handle" is fine, "the handle was its" is generally frowned upon. We can do it with ours, your, his, hers, and theirs, but not its.