How to use There, Their and They're

[Dale Smith]

1. Use there when referring to a place, whether concrete ("over there by the building") or more abstract ("it must be difficult to live there").

    * There is an antique store on Camden Avenue.
    * The science textbooks are over there on the floor.
    * There are many documents that are used in investigations

2.  Use their to indicate possession. It is a possessive adjective and indicates that a particular noun belongs to them.

    * My friends have lost their tickets.
    * Their things were strewn about the office haphazardly.

3.  Remember that they're is a contraction of the words they and are. It can never be used as a modifier, only as a subject (who or what does the action) and verb (the action itself).

    * Hurry up! They're closing the mall at 6 tonight!
    * I'm glad that they're so nice to new students here.

4.  Test your usage. When you use any of these three words, get in the habit of asking yourself these questions:

    * If you wrote there, will the sentence still make sense if you replace it with here? If so, you're using it correctly.
    * If you chose their, will the sentence still make sense if you replace it with our? If so, you've chosen the correct word.
    * If you used they're, will the sentence still make sense if you replace it with they are? If so, you're on the right track!

[Delbert]

Good lesson. 

[Joanna]

It's so funny that you posted this Dale.  I just added a Flair button to my Facebook collection that comments on the difference.

I think I learned them (and other homoyms) early because it was like a puzzle to figure which one to use... I like puzzles. 
I dislike memorizing things by rote though.  I am a poor speller ( love that spell check  ) so a lot of common words like 'terrific' and 'anonymous' and dozens of others I have to look up every single time I use them.  I'm so glad folks don't correct me all the time on here or all my posts would be in red     

[patyrn]

Thanks for this post, Dale.  When I was teaching elementary students, this was an ongoing issue, and it is surprising how many adults still make the same mistakes.  I'm hoping my fourth graders who are now productive adults in the world (supposedly) will remember and choose the correct wording.  It makes me cringe when I see incorrect usage choices on public posters, billboards, and TV ads.

[Catwoman]

Thanks for the post, Dale...It's good to read you again!

[Judy Harder]

Dale,

How nice to have you back. I assume that school is out where  you live.??

I also enjoyed the lesson. Now, if you have a lesson to replace my brain matter with,
that would be a good-thing...........LOL>

It is so much fun getting older!
Always have something to talk about, I just forget who I told what too..........
God bless
Judy

[patyrn]

It's hard to convince many that possessive pronouns do NOT need an apostrophe:  his, hers, ours, theirs, yours, its.  If in doubt, substitute the word "is" for the apostrophe in your sentence and see if it makes sense. 

[Joanna]

"Its" gets me pretty often.  Once I had to write an employee handbook.  On the final proofreading, I took it into my mind that I had it all wrong... I did "find & replace" every single " its " with " it's " then printed 30 copies of that 300 page book.  I felt like a dunce, but don't think anyone else ever noticed it! (Maybe they didn't read it  ) 

[Mom70x7]

And another series of words . . .

Sometimes there's too much information for the two of us to process.

      

[Dale Smith]

   1. If you can substitute the word with "it is" or "it has" then you want the contraction "it's."
          *
                o It's a nice day
                o It's been a nice day.
   2. If you can replace the word with "his" or "her" and it makes sense, then you want the possessive "its."

   3. That's it! Now you'll never make this common mistake again!

    * "Its" and "it's" are two different words with two different uses. It's (it is) always easy to figure out its (his) correct use.
    * Remember that simple sentence and you can't make that common error again.
    * Another way to think of it is this: "hers" and "his" don't have apostrophes, right? So why would "its"?