Is It Its or It’s?

I commonly see the apostrophe used wrongly in the word it’s. So often it spurred me to write about it.

Its without the apostrophe is called a possessive pronoun as in we left the cat on its own.

Possessive pronouns show ownership. They are: my, mine,

our, ours, its, his, her, hers, their, theirs, your, yours, whose, and one’s. Note that only “one’s” uses an apostrophe.

It’s means “it is”, or “it has” as in it’s raining, and it’s even snowed today.

It’s freezing outside.
It’s like an oven out here.
The cat ate from its bowl of food. The dog took its bone; it’s now buried in the garden.

Apparently it’s was used interchangeably with its for the possessive pronoun until around 1800, according to the Oxford Dictionary (1989)

If you have other thoughts on its and it’s please let me know.