Megan C. answered • 02/23/23
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Writing Tutor with Four Years' Experience
there = location
their = possession
they're = contraction of "they are"
What is the difference between THERE, THEIR and THEY'RE?
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3 Answers By Expert Tutors
MJ B. answered • 02/14/23
Tutor
New to Wyzant
Professional Writer and Researcher Tutoring
People get these words confused all the time, so if you do too, this should help:
There describes a pointing and direct location. Imagine the first "e" jumping across the "r" to the other "e," demonstrating someone physically cross over there.
"Hey, let's go have a look at the fire over THERE."
Their is when you're describing an item that belongs to someone else--NOT you, even though there's an "i" in "their," but you are not included. So remember that when you see "Their," that "I" does not belong. Here we go!
"I was just about to the front of the line when they pulled THEIR closed sign out and turned away."
They're is a conjunction, which is a way of shortening your speech by coming two words with an apostrophe, and removing the first letter of the second word. The words "They" and "Are" can be tied together and be pronounced as They're. Check out these sentences:
"Sandy, brush your teeth all the way to the back, because they are the ones that are normally get ignored."
"Sandy, brush your teeth all the way to the back, because they're the one that are normally ignored."
Imagine a book that had no conjunctions. How many more pages do you think that would add to the book?
That apostrophe is pretty cool, right?
Mary G.
Conjunctions join clauses or sentences and are words like these: and, but, if. Contractions are shortened forms of two words. Contractions do use apostrophes to do the shortening, like you said, but their distinctive trait is not that they join, but that they omit. For example, "I'm goin' at five o'clock" contains three contractions, and only one joins words (by omitting the A in "am"). "Goin'" (rather than "going") does not join anything; it simply contracts (shrinks) the word(s), and "o'clock" replaces "of the clock" by completely omitting the word "the."
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02/22/23
Mary G.
Also, I recommend proofreading your answers before posting them. Having several errors like this makes it more challenging to read and understand. Students will be more likely to look to you as a resource and request tutoring from you, if your answers are well-written. Naturally, we want to keep Ask an Expert professional-looking, so students feel they can trust the answers they read here.
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02/22/23
Mary G.
Thanks for making a contribution to help students learn!
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02/22/23
SJ S. answered • 02/13/23
Tutor
New to Wyzant
Marketing & Fashion Merchandising Prof.
THERE = a location. "The book is over there."
THEIR = shows ownership. "It is their book", "The book is theirs."
THEY'RE = a contraction of 2 words THEY + ARE. "They're reading the book now."
Mary G.
Conjunctions join clauses or sentences and are words like these: and, but, if. Contractions are shortened forms of two words. Contractions do use apostrophes to do the shortening, like you said, but their distinctive trait is not that they join, but that they omit. For example, "I'm goin' at five o'clock" contains three contractions, and only one joins words (by omitting the A in "am"). "Goin'" (rather than "going") does not join anything; it simply contracts (shrinks) the word(s), and "o'clock" replaces "of the clock" by completely omitting the word "the."
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02/22/23
SJ S.
Thank you for the correction!
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03/10/23
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Mary G.
I appreciate that you include mnemonic devices to help students remember these differences. Memory aides that the student feels are helpful are an invaluable and effective means of brain-friendly learning. (I am a Neurolanguage Coach®.) So, thanks for adding some creativity to your answer. However, with your permission, I would like to suggest a change to your answer. May I share my thoughts with you? "They're" is not a conjunction. This is important for students to realize, so they do not get confused about conjunctions as one of the principle parts of speech.02/22/23