Which to use
“it's” is a contraction and “its” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #55
- “it's” frequency rank
- #75
- “its” frequency rank
- 130
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | it's | its |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Contraction of it + is. | Belonging to it. |
Same sound, different letters: it's vs its
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: it's and its carry the same recorded pronunciation, /ɪts/. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is acontraction, the other adeterminer, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 130, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
it's is recorded at frequency rank #55, classified as acontraction, pronounced /ɪts/. 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 130, this pair ranks #529,835 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of it's vs its
Shared letters: ist. Private to "it's": -. Private to "its": -.
"it's" · 3 letters · shape VCC · "its" · 3 letters · shape VCC