It's not so difficult to really learn how to distinguish between it's and its. It's just an issue of paying attention and remember a few pieces of information about "it's" and "its".
Let me tell you first a bit about it's. "It's" is a contraction between the neutral second person singular personal pronoun "it" along with the verb "to be" conjugated in the third person singular (he, she, it - is). You use "it's" when reffering to a sentence subject, that is, you just use "it's" as a neutral subject for a sentence, of course, in the third person singular conjugation of the verb to be. Exemplifying, I can say: "Pedro's boat is heading for Argentina, so, it's going to Argentina". I used the personal pronoun"it" plus the verb "is" in the example,because a boat is a neutral subject, neither male (like "he" is) nor female (like "she" is).
On the other hand, "its"can be a possessive pronoun or adjective. As the very denomination suggests, possessive pronouns or adjectives show us a possession relationship between owner and something under its control, or better, its ownership.
As a possessive adjective "its" precede a noun (sth owned) qualifying it. So, you could write or say to someone: " This is its place."
Comments
Dear Daniel! Amazing blog about the grammar rules! How the easy way you explained the rules, it seems I am reading a story even it's packed with a grammar lesson.
Thanks for the great work.
It's and its have the same pronunciation, but I think it's not difficult for learners to distinguish between them while listening to English.
Good question, Daniel!
You shouldn't use 'its' as a possessive pronoun. You could use 'its own' instead, though.
So, Expector, can't I use "its" to replace the owner of something?
Excellent! It complements my blog - you've made it clearer!
You have used all of them correctly except for the 'its' in the last sentence. There is no possessive pronoun 'its', so 'this place is its' is incorrect!
Keep it up!