There, Their, and They’re

A guest post by Katherine Ploeger.

One set of homonyms (words that sound the same but are different words) that cause trouble is the triple of there, their, and they’re.   Each has its indicator as to its function in the sentence, but for the most part, you are simply going to have to memorize these words and their proper usage.  If these are a problem for you, eventually you must learn them so their proper use becomes automatic, and you only have to watch for them slipping in while in the heat of drafting, which happens to the best of us.

THERE

There has two functions in a sentence: one good and the other to be avoided whenever possible.  The first function of there, the good one, is to indicate a location previously stated or described.  Since the word itself carries no real information, it can only refer to something already written.

The trick with there is to see that within the word is the word here, which indicates location.  You can use this trick with other location words, such as here, where, there, somewhere, everywhere, and so on.  If you see here within the word, the word relates to a location.

So if you are writing about a noun’s location, you can safely use there if you have already told the reader the location there refers to.  For example, “Joan and Frank had been there before.”  Assume that the location referred to has already been stated so that the sentence can make sense.  Without that previous information, the sentence is too vague to make much sense to the reader, leaving the reader confused.

The second function of there should rarely be used, as it is a lazy way of writing.  The lazy way of starting a sentence is to write “There is…” or “There are…” finishing the sentence with real information.  For example, “There is a flock of geese grazing in my backyard.”  Because there stands in for the subject, without giving any real information as to who or what is doing the action, it is really an empty subject.  The is or are usually attached is an empty verb for the same reason.

So the reader must decipher the sentence’s real meaning from the words included.  A better sentence would be: “A flock of geese are grazing in my backyard.”  This sentence is clearer, cleaner, and tighter.

The one situation in which you should use There to start a sentence is when you are discussing existence.  “There is a dog in my front yard” would be an appropriate use of There.  Otherwise, avoid it unless you want to appear to be a lazy or beginning writer.

THEIR

Their is the possessive for they.  Note the lack of an apostrophe with possessive pronouns.  With this homonym, you will simply have to memorize it, as I don’t have any identifying tricks to help you.

Let me use it in a sentence:  “Their house sold for the asking price. ” To be really wordy yet convey the same information, I could have written, “The house that they owned sold for the asking price.”  Using their in the sentence decreases the number of words used and conveys the same idea, so the writing is clearer and tighter.

THEY’RE

This one is fairly easy to guess because of the apostrophe used — it is a dead giveaway for a contraction.  They’re expands to They are.  Make sure that using the contraction coincides with your using a plural subject (they) and plural form of the verb (are).  They’re isn’t misused in this way as much as There’s, which will be discussed in a future article in this series, but you can become confused, especially when drafting.

So let’s play with these three homonyms in a few examples.  Note how each word functions and relates information in the sentence.

1. There are several abandoned cars on their block, so they’re going to have them removed.

2. They’re really excited about attending their graduation ceremony there.

3. Their house sold for the asking price, so they’re going to go to Hawaii and stay there a while.

Once you get the hang of it, these three words shouldn’t cause you too much trouble although one may slip in for another during drafting.  So if these homonyms cause you problems, make sure you add them to your ‘Favorite Errors’ list and watch for them specifically when editing your writing.

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