Showing posts with label You're. Show all posts
Showing posts with label You're. Show all posts

Friday, May 11, 2012

If You're Not Sure About your You're and your Ur, please read this!

I'm not a grammar cop, but I do like to help people. I enjoy Facebook, and I read a lot of posts from intelligent people who seem to have trouble with a few words. They're not the only ones who make little mistakes with words, and I'd like to take a shot at making things easier to understand than grammar books do.

Your -- means ownership of some sort. Your Momma was a typical, grammatically correct insult when I was a kid.

You're -- means You are. I get a chuckle when I see someone on Facebook post, Your a moron. That phrasing, that misused word makes the insult ricochet.

Ur-- Ur is often used as shorthand for you're. I suppose it's okay to use that if you're (you are) texting while driving in heavy traffic, while sitting next to a moron...but it's better to take the time. As it happens, Ur was a city-state in ancient times. If you're referring to your history lessons and want to speak about Ur, then you're fine to use Ur in a sentence. It's highly unlikely that's what you're doing with your Ur, but it is possible.

Now let's take a look at places versus ownership.

There -- Is a place that isn't here.
Their -- ownership.
They're -- They are

They're headed for their car over there.

Have a great day, wherever you are...but not wherever you're. (that's an entirely different can of worms, isn't it?)