I may not have the best grammar or punctuation skills, but can we all gather around as a society and quickly lay this out for the sake of my own well being? Listen, I didn't pay attention in fifth grade English either. I couldn't wait to go home, eat a snack, crack open a soda, and watch a ten hour block of television (yes, that's what I did.) But, for the love of Oprah, can we please start using the proper forms of their, there, they're and your, you're?
Okay, just pay attention for like one minute and then you can go back to A.D.D'ing over facebook, twitter, espn, imdb, or whatever other popular site you frequent.
Here we go:
See this thing --> ' <--- that's what we call an APOSTROPHE. You're allowed to use it. Now -- “They’re” is a contraction of “they are.”
So, if you’ve written “they’re,” ask yourself whether you can substitute “they are.” If not, you’ve made a mistake.
“Their” is a possessive pronoun like “her” or “our” “They eat their pizza with pepperoni.”
Everything else is “there.”
“There goes the baseball, out of the park! See it? Right there! There aren’t very many home runs like that.”
NEXT
Remember that APOSTROPHE? You may use it again! So -- You're is a contraction of "you are." "You are going to lose the game," can become, "You're going to lose the game."
"Your" is the possessive form of you. This is your game. (Meaning you own the game.)
I'll digress because I don't want to turn this into a lame how-to blog. However, please feel free to refer to this post when writing your next facebook status complaining about your life, or telling us where in the world you currently are. If you're going to rub it in our face that you're on a beach in January -- at least use the proper forms of your/you're and there/their/they're.
Stay tuned next week for "its/it's."
