(This page may contain affiliate links. If you click and purchase, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.)
Understanding the difference between commonly confused words will help you avoid making errors in English usage. Let’s examine the difference between the following:
they’re
They’re is a contraction of they are.
They’re about to leave for the airport.
there
There is an adverb that means at a certain place or position: it is the opposite of here. In conjunction with forms of the verb to be, there indicates that something exists.
“I’ll sit right over there, if you don’t mind,” she said, moving toward the couch.
There is a very nice restaurant just a block away.
their
Their is a possessive pronoun that means belonging to them, the people or things just referred to or easily identified. It’s the possessive form of they.
The neighbors said that their cat had gone missing the previous week.
☛ To help you remember the differences in spelling these words, here are some tips:
There is related to position or place, as is the word here, which is spelled similarly.
Their is the only word among these homophones containing the letter i. Their relates to possession, as do the words mine and his, which also contain an i.
If you can substitute they are for the word in question, it should be spelled they’re:
They are about to leave for the airport.Photo credits:
Photo 1: Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay
Photo 2: Image by roberto vale from Pixabay
Photo 3: Image by Charles McArthur from Pixabay