Many people get confused about whether to use “its” or
"it's" in a sentence. As you read in the previous section,
"its" is a possessive pronoun while "it's" is a contraction
for "it is".
The rule to remember here is that possessive pronouns never
have apostrophes. “It’s” contains an apostrophe; therefore, it is not a
possessive pronoun. “Its”, on the other hand, does not have an
apostrophe; it is a possessive pronoun.
If you are not sure whether to use "its" or
"it's", spell it out as “it is” and see if it makes sense. For
example:
The front of the car was drenched,
but its wheels were not wet at all.
Here, some people may think that “it’s” may be the correct
form to use. The trick is to spell it as “ it is” in the sentence and see if it
still makes sense. “The front of the car was drenched, but it is wheels
were not wet at all.”
Obviously, this doesn’t make sense, so the correct word is
“its”. This trick works for all confusing situations with “it’s” and “its”.