Why do we use "its" for possessive? [duplicate]
Solution 1:
Think of "its" as going with "his" or "hers" - you don't use an apostrophe in those even though they are possessive.
Solution 2:
There are two primary reasons
- Possesive pronouns do not end with 's (mine, yours, hers/his, ours, theirs)
- Ambiguity. "It's" is a contraction of "it is". In most cases, substituting "it is" for "its" in a sentence would result in nonsense, but I'm sure there are cases where it could still make sense, therefore changing the meaning. Either way it would be incorrect.