Waiting

 

Yes, all three words sound the same, and that’s frustrating, but meat and meet are homonyms as well, and most of us don’t worry about meating friends for meetloaf. With a little practice, you’ll find yourself sailing – not sale-ing – through the confusion of There, Their and They’re.

 

Let’s start with the easiest one first: They’re. This is an abbreviation for They Are, and the apostrophe is placed to tell us that we eliminated a letter or two (in this case, the A of Are).

 

So the ONLY time you will use They’re is when you are effectively saying They Are:

 

They’re (They are) going to the store.

 

I wonder when they’re (they are) arriving?

 

Now let’s look at Their:

 

Their is a possessive pronoun along the lines of My, Your, His, Her, or Our; it is used in front of a noun – a person, place, or thing – to tell us that the object in question belongs to a particular set of people:

 

Where is their house?

 

The easiest way to figure out whether or not you should be using Their in the sentence is to replace it with His or Her and see if it still makes sense:

 

Where is their (his/her) house?

 

What is their (his/her) opinion on the matter?

 

With this in mind, look at these misuses of Their and see how replacing His or Her makes the error more obvious:

 

Their (His/Her) are six cats in the kitchen. (There are six cats in the kitchen.)

 

The book is on the table over their (his/her). (The book is on the table over there.)

 

Their (His/Her) going to be late for dinner. (They’re – They are – going to be late for dinner.)

 

Their and They’re have pretty specific, limited uses, so basically, everything else uses the word There.

 

You don’t need to worry that There is sometimes a demonstrative adverb, signifying place (He’s over there), other times a controversially defined pronoun (There are a lot of problems with this paper), other times something else.

 

There wears a lot of hats, which is why people misuse it so much.

 

If you speak Spanish, you are no doubt familiar with the term Hay, as in Hay seis gatos en la cocina), or in French, Il y a – (Il y a six chats dans la cuisine) – both terms translate into There is or There are in English – There are six cats in the kitchen.

 

Also, if you can answer the question Where? You’re probably looking at the word there:

 

I see him over where?

 

I see him over there.

 

Put the book where?

 

Put the book there.

 

Want to practice?

 

1)      There/Their/They’re going to be late if they don’t get here soon.

 

2)      I don’t understand there/their/they’re negative attitude.

 

3)      There/Their/They’re are too many cats in this kitchen.

 

4)      Will you be There/Their/They’re by 3 p.m.?

 

5)      There/Their/They’re books are on the coffee table.

 

6)      There/Their/They’re always leaving there/their/they’re books over there/their/they’re on the bathroom floor.

 

Answers:

 

1)      They’re (They are) going to be late if they don’t get here soon.

 

2)      I don’t understand their (his/her) negative attitude.

 

3)      There are too many cats in the kitchen. (Neither They are or His/Her makes sense)

 

4)      Will you be there (where?) by 3 p.m.?

 

5)      Their (His/Her) books are on the coffee table.

 

6)      They’re (They are) always leaving their (his/her) books over there (where?) on the bathroom floor.

 

Still have questions? Contact the Grammar Goddess directly through the Steve Henderson Fine Art website by hitting the hyperlink at the beginning of this sentence.