yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

There, their, and they're | Frequently confused words | Usage | Grammar


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

Hello Grim Marians! Today, I want to talk about one of the absolute thorniest issues in usage of English, and it's the difference between "there," "their," and "they're." If you can't tell the difference from the way I'm saying it, that's because it's really confusing and evil. Um, and that is why I'm here—to help you make a distinction between these three sound-alike words.

Now, first of all, we have "there" (t h e r e), which we're going to use orange for. It is an adverb and an adjective, and it's used to signify where something is. So, the way to remember that this one is all about location is just to take the T and replace it with a W. The question is: where? The answer is "there."

So, have you been to Greece? Yes, I went there. I have not gone there. Have you seen my dog? Yes, there's my dog. So, you asked the question: where did you go? I went there. Where is my dog? There is my dog. Technically, this is an adverbial use; here, "there" is modifying "went," and here is an adjectival use, uh, because "there" is modifying "dog."

The second member of this confusing trio is "their" (t h e i r), which is a possessive determiner. Let's just call that a possessive. This is when something belongs to a they, and it's an adjective. So, let's just call this a possessive adjective. For example, Sue and Fred ate their ice cream cones. So, "their" (t h e i r) the possessive answers the question: who does that belong to?

So, rounding out our trio, the last member of the "there there there" writers of the Apocalypse is "they're" (t h e y apostrophe r e), which is a contraction of "they are." So, anywhere you would want to say "they are," you can smoosh that together and say "they're."

So, hey kid, are your parents home? No, they're not home right now. Can I take a message? So you can see, in this sentence, "they're not home right now." Can I take a message? "There" (t h e y apostrophe r e) is replacing "they are." Both of these things would work equally well in the sentence. They're both grammatical; one's just shorter. As we know, English, as with most languages, likes to take the easy route—um, finding the shortest possible or most efficient option, if you prefer.

So, as a writer and speaker of English, you're going to come across this situation a lot. Which one of these things do you use? Uh, and so when you come across this thorny little issue, do I use "there," "their," or "they're"? You have to ask yourself a series of questions.

Question number one: does it answer the question, where is it? If so, use t h e r e. Uh, if the use answers the question, who does it belong to, then you use t h e i r. If what you're trying to say is a contraction of "they are," then what you're looking for is t h e y apostrophe r e.

I know it's confusing, but you can learn anything. David out.

More Articles

View All
Mind-Blowing Theories on Nothingness You Need to Know | Documentary
Have you ever found yourself lost in deep thoughts about what nothingness truly is? Today, we are going to explore mind-blowing questions about nothingness and seek all the answers. Does ‘nothing’ exist, or is there only ‘quantum foam’? Does “The Schwinge…
Concrete and abstract nouns | The parts of speech | Grammar | Khan Academy
Hello Garans. So today I’d like to talk to you about the idea of concrete and abstract nouns. Before we do that, I’d like to get into some origins—some word origins or etymology. Um, so let’s take each of these words in turn. I think by digging into wha…
Median in a histogram | Summarizing quantitative data | AP Statistics | Khan Academy
Miguel tracked how much sleep he got for 50 consecutive days and made a histogram of the results. Which interval contains the median sleep amount? So, they’re saying, is it this interval on the histogram from 6 to 6.5, or this one, or this one, or any of …
How Big Can a Person Get?
Hey, Vsauce. Michael here. Ten centimeters - about four inches. This is how much taller on average people are today than they were 150 years ago. Better nutrition and medical care early in life has allowed us to better take advantage of the blueprints wi…
Charlie Munger's Alibaba Confession at the Daily Journal Annual Meeting (2023)
This video is sponsored by Morning Brew. Sign up to their free daily newsletter via the link in the description. I regret Alibaba’s one of the worst mistakes I ever made. I got over charmed by the people who were leading in the online retailing, and I di…
WARNING: The Great Reset Of 2022 Explained
[Music] All right, fine, don’t ask me again. I will talk about the great reset. By the way, it feels weird starting a video off without the normal introductions, so let’s get that out of the way. What’s up, son? It’s Dad here, and yes, I will talk about t…