How to Tell the Difference in English Between There, Their and They're

By Louie Jerome

The English Language is full of words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings. Some common examples of this are:

meet: to meet someone, to keep an appointment, to join someone at a particular place.

meat: food, meat comes from animals (meat is flesh.)

mete: to mete out is to measure out, as in mete out punishment.

floor: the floor is the part of a room nearest the ground. A floor may be covered in carpet.

flaw: a flaw in something is an imperfection.

There are thousands more examples that can only be learnt by repetition and familiarity.

However, the most common mistakes of this type in English Language arise from the words: their, there, and they're. Many native English speakers get this wrong in written English.

First of all, remember that they all start with the word 'the'. If you keep this in mind you will never misspell any of them.

There: this can be used as a preposition as in 'over there', or as an adverb of place in 'there's my house'.

Examples:

There is a field over there.

There's a red flag flying on the building.

There are two hundred pupils in the school.

There she goes. Did you see her?

Their: this is the possessive form 'of them', belonging to 'them'.

Examples:

Their house is in London. They live there.

Their shoes need cleaning because they are covered in mud.

Their son is called Brian.

They're: this is often heard in spoken English Language but not so often written down. It is a contraction of the words 'they are'. English is full of such contractions like: it's, can't, won't, wouldn't, etc. Letters are left out of words and they slide together in speech. This often makes it hard to understand spoken English unless you have heard the contractions before.

Examples:

They're going to school today.

They're going away on holiday.

They told me they're going to a party tonight.

They're trying to find their pet dog because they lost him yesterday.

When these words are used in spoken English there is no difference in sound. This is not a problem when you are listening, or speaking to someone but when you have to write them down it is confusing unless you have a firm grasp of the different spellings. The examples below demonstrate how these words sound the same but have different spellings:

They're trying to move their car over there because there is a danger of it being damaged where it is.

There is the new house they're moving into and their fabulous swimming pool is over there.

Copyright: Louie Jerome 2008 Louie Jerome is a UK writer, editor and publisher. She is also a qualified TEFL/TESOL teacher. Writer Soup is a monthly internet magazine for writers and readers. http://www.learn-english-now.co.uk