More Easy Ways to Avoid Grammar Errors
Common Grammar Mistakes & Simple Hints: There vs. Their vs. They're
Jun 22, 2009
If you have specific grammar woes that plague you, you are not alone. Many people have problems with the same rules. Sometimes, all you need is a hint, or “cheat” (to borrow a gaming phrase), to help you quickly and easily figure out what is needed in a sentence.
Previous articles have reviewed grammar hints on Affect versus Effect, Your Versus You’re, and Don’t Versus Doesn’t and other advice on It’s versus Its, Have versus Of, and Whom tricks.
Below are some more common grammar mistakes and simple ways to overcome them.
There Versus Their
There and their (and even they’re) sound the same, so they are often used interchangeably--and incorrectly. “Their” is a possessive pronoun, used to indicate “ownership,” as in “That is their house.” “There,” on the other hand, is an adverb used to indicate place, as in “I put my books over there.”
A fairly easy way to distinguish “there” from “their” is by comparing “there” to a similar word: “here,” which--like “there”--is an adverb indicating place. If you can substitute the word “here” in the sentence and it still sounds okay, then you should use “there” instead of “their.” See the following example.
- Place your forms there/their.
- Place your forms here.
Because the sentence sounds okay with “here” as a substitute, we know that “there” is the correct word for the sentence. See the next example.
- Their/there name is hard to pronounce.
- Here name is hard to pronounce.
This sentence does not sound okay with “here” substituted, so in this case, we know the word we should use is “their.”
A Big Exception
There are some exceptions, but the most common is when “there” is used this way: “There will be cake at the party” or “There is a misunderstanding.” In that instance, “there” is a pronoun. Just remember that “their” should never be followed by a verb. Because “their” is a possessive pronoun, it should be followed by a noun (“their pets,” “their time”).
It may also help to remember that because “their” is possessive, it should “own” something--a thing is a noun, so “their” should be followed by a noun. Need some help with pronouns and nouns? Brush up on the Parts of Speech.
They’re
“They’re” should be easy to distinguish from the other two due to the contraction rule; remember, the apostrophe indicates something is missing, so you should separate the contraction into its separate words to figure out if the correct word is being used. See this example:
- They’re being loud.
- They are being loud.
We know “they’re” is used correctly here because we can substitute the two words that make the contraction, and it still sounds fine. You can see how it indicates that it’s incorrect if we use two of the earlier examples:
- Place your forms they’re.
- Place your forms they are.
- They’re name is hard to pronounce.
- They are name is hard to pronounce.
Recognizing Problems on Your Own
You’ll find that when you continually correct these kinds of errors, you will get better at recognizing them. Soon, the correct form will be second nature to you. Sometimes all a person needs is a simple hint to help her correct her own errors. Being aware of common mistakes is a good place to start down that path.
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