What does the contraction it's mean?

Answer 1

The contraction it's stands for it is.

Be VERY careful not to confuse it's with the soundalike, lookalike pronoun its, which means "belonging to it". While possessive nouns almost always use an apostrophe in their possessive form (e.g. the man's hat, the dog's collar), possessive pronouns are a MAJOR exception to that rule. That's why we write yours and theirs instead of "your's" and "their's"!

So ... how can you decide whether to use it's or its? Just remember that it's means the same thing as it is. If your sentence makes sense when written with "it is", you can also use it's. Otherwise, the correct word is almost certainly its.

For example, which is right?

1. The bird built it's nest.
2. The bird built its nest.

If you replace it's with it is in the first sentence it becomes "The bird built it is nest." That's clearly not correct, so the second sentence with its (no apostrophe!) is what you want.

Answer 2

The contraction "it's" is a shortened form of "it is" or "it has." It is used to combine the pronoun "it" with the verb "is" or "has" to make a sentence more concise.