is vs its, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“is” is a verb and “its” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8
“is” frequency rank: #75
“its” frequency rank: 83
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	is	its
Definition	third-person singular simple present indicative of be	Belonging to it.

Where the eye mixes is and its

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

2 ch

3 ch

its

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: is is /ɪz/ while its is /ɪts/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

is is recorded at frequency rank #8, classified as averb, pronounced /ɪz/. its is at rank #75, tagged as adet, pronounced /ɪts/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 83, this pair ranks #529,916 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of is vs its

Shared letters: is. Private to "is": -. Private to "its": t.

"is" · 2 letters · shape VC · "its" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "is" and "its" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "is" is a verb and "its" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "is" or "its"?

"is" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8 in our English list, against #75 for "its". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.