POSSESSIVE VERSUS CONTRACTIONS
For most things, this is very clear. If it belongs to someone, possessive, then an apostrophe S is required at the end of the word or name.
Examples: That is the dog's dish. That belongs to Sally's aunt.
If it is a contraction, and two words are pushed together with some letters missing, then an apostrophe replaces the missing letters.
Examples:
Do not = Don't Could not = Couldn't
But then there are the oddball exceptions to this rule, where no one really knows why things are done this way, we just have to learn that they are.
Examples: Will not = Won't (shrug)
Yet, most people get this right most of the time. The one that seems to cause the most problems is its versus it's.
Because the apostrophe contraction for it's means IT IS, the possessive form of this word does not include a contraction. Presumably, this was done in order to alleviate confusion between the two words, but in actuality, most people get it wrong, because it is an exception to the possessive rule above.
IT'S is a contraction that stands for IT IS. Anytime you want to use IT IS, you can replace it with IT'S.
ITS is the possessive form of the word IT, meaning that IT owns or possesses something.
Example: The building was destroyed in the fire, almost completely. It's not easy to understand why its door frames were still standing.
The first instance of IT'S stands for IT IS, but the second instance of ITS refers to the door frames belonging to the building. IT is the building, and ITS is used to denote possession of the door frames. Silly example, I know, but it makes its point. Ah, there's another instance or ITS used in the possessive.
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