In my years as a writing teacher and as a proofreader, I can safely say that mixing up homophones is the most common spelling error in writing English. Homophones are words that are pronounced the same but have different spellings and meanings. English has hundreds of homophones, but I want to concentrate on one of the most common homophones that confuses many writers, which is there, their and they’re. Most writers know that they’re is a contraction for they are, so that one is usually not a problem - it’s those other two that usually get mixed up. There means: in, at, to, or into that place. Let’s go there after work. There are eight planets in our Solar System. There is no other route we can take. I saw you there last night. And so on. A way to remember when to write there is to see that here is a big part of the word there, and here and there go nicely with each other.
Their means: belonging to them. The students were in their seats, reading their books and writing their vocabulary words. My parents went to the bank to see about getting a loan for their business. Their farm is about twenty miles outside of town. A good way to remember when to write their is to notice that heir is a big part of the word their. An heir, of course, is someone who inherits something, usually property, so that the property now belongs to that person. Though their means belonging to them, as long as you associate the concept of belonging to, you will know when to write their. After the dogs ate their dinner, the pet shop owner put them back in their cages, gave them their biscuits and waited until they were done with their barking and lying on their pillows before he locked up the shop for the night.
I invited some friends over for dinner tomorrow night. They’re bringing their kids, so there will be a lot of noise. But if we put them way over there in the back room, they can play their video games and chase each other around until they’re too tired to make any more noise.
I hope those explanations and examples help with the there/their/they’re trilogy of homophones.
Blake
