Which to use
“it” is a pronoun and “it's” is a contraction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12
- “it” frequency rank
- #55
- “it's” frequency rank
- 67
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | it | it's |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The third-person singular neuter personal pronoun used to refer to an inanimate object, abstract entity, or non-human living thing. | Contraction of it + is. |
Where the eye mixes it and it's
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: it is /ɪt/ while it's is /ɪts/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “it” sits inside “it's”, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs contraction), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
it is recorded at frequency rank #12, classified as apron, pronounced /ɪt/. it's is at rank #55, tagged as acontraction, 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 67, this pair ranks #529,940 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of it vs it's
Shared letters: it. Private to "it": -. Private to "it's": s.
"it" · 2 letters · shape VC · "it's" · 3 letters · shape VCC