
They're/Their/There is another set of words that are commonly misused. They're means "they are," their indicates possession, and there refers to a place. I like to remember, "They're going to their house over there." Then and Than are a couple more tricky words that are often confused. Than is a conjunction introducing a dependent clause of comparison. Then is an adverb meaning "at that time" or "next." For example, My car is faster than yours." and "We ate and then went for a walk." A "quick and dirty" tip from Grammar Girl: Both "than" and "comparison" have the letter "a" in them, and "then" and "time" both have the letter "e." |
And finally, your versus you're. My guess is these two words are often confused for the same reasons as affect/effect and then/than. They sound exactly the same. Your is the possessive form of you, while you're is a contraction of the two words you are. "You're going to be happy I answered your questions." When I was trying to decide which words to cover in this post, I quickly learned I could write a book about all of them. Which commonly misused words top your pet peeve list or which ones do you often struggle with? Comment below! |