Common Mistakes in English - It's vs. Its

It's vs. Its

It's is the contracted form of It is. This form is used in sentences using "they" as the subject of the sentence with the verb "to be" used as either the helping verb (e.g. It's going ..., It's raining ...) or the principal verb of the sentence.

Examples:

It's difficult to find work these days.
It's going to rain soon.

Its is the possessive pronoun form. This form is used to express that "it" has a specific quality, or that something belongs to "it".

Examples:

I found its taste to be superb!
Its color is deep red, almost Burgundy.

Do you understand the rules? Test your knowledge with this it's vs. its quiz.