Its and It’s

 A Popular Violation of the Rules

It is not unusual to read material written by educated writers who have misspelled its. Long ago in the time of Middle English, our words were male and female, not in meaning but in form. If you’ve studied Latin or a Romance language, your teacher told you during your first week about this peculiar trait of nouns.  It was something you had to accept if you planned to pass the course. Eventually speakers of English started using neuter words. It referred to antecedents (words coming before the pronoun), unless their meaning was female or male, for example, girl or boy.

Around 1600, writers started placing an apostrophe after it to show possession. For about three hundred years this use of an apostrophe in a possessive pronoun was a common practice.

An old way of writing it is was ’tis.

'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus.

Louisa M. R. Stead wrote the lyrics to that beautiful old hymn after she watched her husband drown as he tried to rescue a drowning boy. It is believed she wrote the hymn in the 1880’s.

In the nineteenth century, the apostrophe in its showing possession disappeared. The expression ’tis in our conversations and writings also vanished. Those of us who love Stead’s hymn will sing ’tis forever.

Now, in the twenty-first century, it is considered inappropriate to place an apostrophe in the pronoun its, which means belonging to it.

It’s is a contraction meaning it is or it has. In accepted usage, we seem to need to distinguish between its and it’s. If you think about the rule, it may not make sense. The solution is not to think too hard about this peculiarity of our English language. It is not ours to reason why. Just do it.

The house needs its paint refreshed.

It’s been a long time since we saw our cousins.

It’s snowing.

The accepted usage of it’s has switched back and forth throughout the centuries. In the current time, its means belonging to it. It’s means it is or it has. Multiple references express the same sentiments about the way to write its and it’s. One useful source is Merriam-Webster.com.