There, Their, and They're

They’re singing their song right over there! 
Some tricks for ‘there’, ‘their’, and ‘they’re’.

Three of the trickiest words to remember how to spell are the trickiest because, well, they mean different things, but they all sound the same! But I’ve discovered a few simple tricks to help me remember which one is which and now I never make a mistake. Let’s talk about:

There  

Their

and

They’re

The first thing to remember is no matter whether you choose ‘there’, ‘their’, or ‘they’re’ for your sentence, you always start with ‘the’. Once you’ve got a T, an H, and an E, you’re…well, you’re half way there! (or half way to ‘their’, or ‘they’re’…) you just have to choose which letters come after.

So, let’s start with ‘there’. Meaning: A place different from here. As in: “I am going there.” Or “That thing over there.”  

If you are going to answer the question: “Where are you going?”

Your response might be: “I am going to school. It takes twenty minutes to get there.”

So, I always remember to use the correct spelling this way:

Where and There are spelled the same way except for the first letter! So, if you can remove your ‘there’ from your sentence, and use it as an answer to the question ‘where?’ you know it needs to be spelled
t h e r e. And you’re good to go. So there!

One more way to know if you should use ‘there’ in your sentence is to remove the first letter. Take the ‘t’ off of ‘there’ and you get ‘here’, right? After all, if you are going ‘there’, once you arrive, you would say: “I’m here.” Or, if someone asked you to go get that thing over there, once you had it, you might say: “Here it is!” So, I always think of it this way:
Every ‘there’ is also a ‘here’.
Or
‘here’ is inside every ‘where’ and ‘there’.
So if the ‘there’ in my sentence could also be a ‘here’, then I know I’ve got the right one.

The party’s where? The party’s there! The party is here!

Now, let’s talk about ‘their’. ‘Their’ is meant to distinguish something as belonging to ‘them’, as in: “They are reading their books.” Or “Those are my friends, and those books are theirs.

This one is a bit trickier, but stay with me here…what’s the first rule? You always start with

T h e

Then you’ve got an ‘I’! So, if you can put ‘yourself’ in the sentence, as in:

“I am reading their books.” Or “I am their friend, and those books are theirs.” Then go ahead and put a ‘their’ there!

I saved the easiest one for last!

‘They’re’ is two words smushed into one. It is a contraction of ‘they’ and ‘are’. So, easy peasy: If you can replace your ‘they’re’ with ‘they are’ in your sentence, then kick that ‘a’ to the curb and go on and turn it into an apostrophe. Sing it out now:

They are singing? Yes! They’re singing their song right over there!!

• Posted By Ravonna
• Jul 10, 2018
• #english10-1 #esl #languageartsgrades7-9 #readingcomprehension #readingwritinggrades1-6 #spellingandreadinggrades1-6