« Forum Etiquette: How to avoid being banned. | Home | Technical Communication: Know your audience. »
They’re, Their, and There: Solving the age-old mystery!
By Administration | March 18, 2007
The English language isn’t exactly the easiest to understand- there are more rules, clauses, modifiers, and exceptions than any other popular language. So, it’s no surprise that many people have a problem with duplicate words (words that sound the same but don’t mean the same thing).
There refers to a place. For example, “I went over there”.
Their refers to possession or ownership. For example, “that is their car”.
They’re is a different way to say “they are”. For example, “they’re going to mall after lunch”.
This gets even more complicated when you have two words that sound the same as well as being spelled the same. For example:
Dove is referring to a type of bird. For example, “the dove flew overhead”.
Dove is a plural version of “dive”. For example, “I dove into the lake”.
Post can be referring to making a comment on an internet forum. For example, “I regret making that post on WickedFire”.
A Post is something, usually man made, portruding from the ground. For example, “it took me an hour to dig a hole big enough for that stupid post to go into”.
Spring is a season. For example, “It sure is raining a lot this spring”.
A Spring is a coil, usually made of metal. For example, “a spring in my mattress keeps poking me in the ribs”.
“Dove” can mean two different things depending on the context that it is being used in, even though it is spelled the same in both situations. The same can be said for the other examples I used. However, there a many words that are examples of this.
Proper grammar can be a hard thing to learn for someone where english is their second language. It is also difficult for most native english speakers, so be sure to double check your writing to ensure that everything makes grammatical sense. One of the biggest complaints among teachers is that many people don’t know the difference between there, their, and they’re. So, if nothing else, at least remember those three!
Comments are closed.