Commonly Confused:  their, there, they're

 

What's wrong with this sentence?

When I'm training for a race, there's nobody their to distract me.


Here we continue with our unit on possessives. Possessive adjectives are commonly confused with other words and word forms.  In this lesson, we will help you to distinguish between a possessive adjective and these other forms.

This will help you with your reading comprehension and with your writing.

Why Are their, there, and they're so often confused?

 

The three words, their, there, and they're, are often confused with each other because they sound so similar.  Their and there are homonyms, for sure.  They're has a slightly different pronunciation, but when spoken quickly in conversation, or with various regional dialects, can sound the same as well.

Reading can help you to learn the differences between these three words.

Let's first answer the question to define our terms: What is a contraction?

A contraction is a word that is formed when two words combine by eliminating a letter and using an apostrophe in place of the dropped letter.   One common contraction is "they're". In writing, the contraction they're is often confused with the possessive adjective their and the adverb or subject placeholder, there.


  • their is a possessive adjective.

    People who live in the city have their own problems.

  • there is an adverb .

    We had fun there.

  • they're is a pronoun and verb contraction formed by combining the subject pronoun they and the 3rd person plural form of the "be" verb are, and replacing the " a" of "is" with an apostrophe ' :  they + are = they're

    They're here!

Exercise 11

 

  Exercise 11:  their or they're  - Possessive Adjective or Noun + Verb Contraction?

1)  If the bolded word is a possessive adjective, circle it.
2) If the bolded word is a noun + verb contraction, rewrite the sentence in the space provided with the noun and the verb as separate words.

1.   They're at home right now.

2.  They feel secure in their home.
 

 PROBLEM: When I'm training for a race, there's nobody their to distract me and break my concentration.

SOLUTION: When I'm training for a race, there's nobody there to distract me and break my concentration.


Click here for the answers to Exercise 11.

Next... Commonly Comfused: who'se and whose

 

In our next lesson, we discuss: Commonly Confused:  who's and whose.

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