Its or it’s

If it’s a perennial worry working out when to use its or it’s, then here’s a tip that I hope will work its magic for you.

Simply clear your mind of all previous advice and follow these two steps:

a) look at the sentence in front of you; and,
b) say it to yourself, inserting it is in place of its or it’s.

If your sentence still makes sense when you add it is, then visualise the apostrophe replacing the second i. Another way of remembering is this: if it makes no sense to add is, it makes no sense to add an apostrophe.

For example,

Original sentence:  How can you tell if its/it’s the correct word?
Sentence check:     How can you tell if it is the correct word?
Correct sentence:   How can you tell if it’s the correct word?

Original sentence:  How can you tell if its/it’s spelling is correct?
Sentence check:      How can you tell if it is spelling is correct?
Correct sentence:   How can you tell if its spelling is correct?