What is the difference between the word it's and the word its?

Answer 1

Good question. The use of the apostrophe causes much confusion and the word "it" adds some complexity.

To answer your question first, "it's" is simply an abbreviation of "it is" while "its" implies possession.

Example (brackets used for explanation): "It's (it is) a fact that a kangaroo puts its (possession) young in a pouch"

"It" and other pronouns however are exceptions to a general grammatical rule regarding using an "s" to express possession.

The general grammar rule would be for singular possession, use 's.

Example (brackets used for explanation): "A kangaroo's (singular possession) pouch is for the protection of its (possession special case for it) young"

For multiple (plural) possession, you use s' to avoid confusion

Example (brackets used for explanation): "Kangaroos' (plural/multiple possession) pouches (plural/multiple) protect their (plural/multiple) young"

It's tricky but as mentioned, but possessive pronouns are the only exception to the rule about using an apostrophe to indicate possession. It's (it is) the reason we write "hers", "yours", "theirs", etc. instead of "her's", "yours' ", and so on.

Answer 2

"It's" is a contraction of "it is" or "it has," while "its" is a possessive pronoun meaning belonging to it.