Comments on: Their, There, and They’re

By: Ashley Cooper

Ashley Cooper — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:25:20 +0000

Trust you to use tweetup in one of your examples! Good post though Chris, I cry a little bit inside when I see someone using any of those words incorrectly. It’s like a stun gun to the head.

By: Brian Shields

Brian Shields — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:00:39 +0000

Next will you please address my pet peeve… people who don’t know the difference between less and fewer? I cringe every time I hear people use less when fewer is required. (If you can count it, it’s fewer. If it’s an aggregate amount, it’s less.)

Thank you so much.

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 05:18:44 +0000

When I was in school, definitions were hard to for me to remember, so I would remember what each one was by this rule:

“Their” is to possession because there is an “I” in the word and this implies “If this is not mine, it has to be theirs.”

“There” is to location, or being somewhere because this form of the word has “here.” in it, and this implies “If I was not there, I must have been here.”

“They’re” is to “they are” because of the apostrophe in the middle of the word. The apostrophe implies that there should be a space and the letter “A” are missing.