Pet Peeve: Get "It" Right

With "pet peeves" being our theme of the month here at the Blood Red Pencil, I had soooo many to choose from! But in the end, I went with a simple peeve that grates on my mind like nails on an old-fashioned chalkboard: The misuse and confusion of it's (with an apostrophe) and its (no apostrophe). 

Honestly (if I can vent for just a second)... It isn't that hard!

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Here's the skinny on it's and its, short and sweet:

• It's is the contraction of "it is" or "it has." (To rephrase the sentence above: It's not that hard!) 
• Its is the possessive form for the pronoun "it." (Its grammatical companions include hers, his, theirs.)

Most (but not all) of the mix up I see comes from using it's in the possessive sense. And I see this everywhere—not just in books, but on websites, in advertisements, and in menus (especially in menus!). I don't really have much more to say about this pet peeve of mine, so I'm offering a little quiz below, straight from rain-soaked California. You decide if the use of its/it's is correct (C) or wrong (W) for each example. 

1. Its raining like there's no tomorrow. 
2. What if it's never going to stop? 
3. Huge puddle ahead on the freeway, it's depth a mystery. 
4. Will my small car with it's low clearance be able to get through? 
5. No turning back: it's a freeway. 
6. Uh-oh. Its way deeper than I thought. 
7. I'm stuck now, and it's my own fault.
8. At least the house is still on it's foundations and not floating away.

The nearest creek is a raging torrent but still contained within its banks. 

1. All in all I'm lucky.  It's been quite the epic series of storms, but we're okay. (NOTE: I haven't really ventured through any massive roadway puddles. That part is fiction!)

I'll post the answers in the comments later this week. Right now, I need to clear out the drains in the backyard and check the weather app on my phone to see what Mother Nature has in store for us...

Ann Parker authors the award-winning Silver Rush historical mystery series published by Poisoned Pen Press, an imprint of Sourcebooks. During the day, she wrangles words for a living as a science editor/writer and marketing communications specialist (which is basically a fancy term for "editor/writer"). Her midnight hours are devoted to scribbling fiction. Visit AnnParker.net for more information.