Looking For Wallets

They’re Looking For Their Wallets Over There.

Here’s another batch of homonyms: they’re, their, and there. With three of them to choose from, it’s easy to grab hold of the wrong one. So first, let’s take a look at what each of them means.

They’re – This is a contraction, and it always means ‘They are’ (or occasionally, ‘They were’). If you have a sentence with ‘they’re’ in it and substituting ‘they are’ makes the sentence into garbage, it isn’t the right word for that sentence.

Their – This word means ‘belongs to them’.

There – This word indicates a location that is not here; an area that is some distance away.

Which of the following sentences is correct?

1.     1. They’re looking for a lost dog.

2.    2.  Their looking for a lost dog.

3.     3. There looking for a lost dog.

Answer: #1 is correct, because they are looking for a lost dog. In #2, if you try to substitute ‘belongs to them’ looking for a lost dog, it doesn’t really make sense. It is possible the lost dog belongs to the searching party, but we don’t know that for sure. And in #3, trying to substitute ‘an area that is some distance away’ looking for a lost dog also doesn’t make any sense. How can an inanimate area look for anything?

Which of the following sentences is correct?

1.    1.  They’re lost dog came home.

2.     2. Their lost dog came home.

3.     3. There lost dog came home.

Answer: #2 is correct, because the lost dog ‘belongs to them’. In #1, ‘they are’ lost dog came home makes no sense. And in #3, ‘an area some distance away’ lost dog came home also makes no sense. How can a distant area describe a lost dog?

Which of the following sentences is correct?

1.    1.  I found my wallet over there.

2.    2.  I found my wallet over their.

3.   3.   I found my wallet over they’re.

Answer: #1 is correct because the wallet was found in a different location. #2 makes no sense, because the wallet doesn’t belong to ‘them’, it belongs to the speaker. #3 also makes no sense, because it is saying, I found my wallet over ‘they are’.

Trying to remember the meanings of these words will help you figure out which one to use where. To me, ‘they’re’ is the easiest one to remember, because it always means ‘they are’.

‘There’ has the word ‘here’ within it, and they are both locations or areas. But while ‘here’ means ‘where I am’, ‘there’ means ‘a spot at some distance’.

Which leaves the word ‘their’, and I don’t have any little tricks for remembering what it means. But if you need to, look it up in a dictionary when you come across it. I don’t think it will take you long to memorize what it means.

 

 

Do You Hear it or Here it?

It’s surprising to me how often I receive a letter or advertisement in the mail with grammar or punctuation mistakes. I sometimes get a manuscript for editing with the same mistakes, so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. Not everybody who finds themselves writing some sort of missive managed to test out of Freshman English in college.

Having already tackled the subject of passive verbs, I decided to continue the trend by explaining a pair of homonyms. Homonyms are words that sound the same but have different meanings.

The two words I’m going to pick on today are here and hear. They sound the same, but they aren’t spelled the same and they can’t be used interchangeably.

Here means ‘this spot where I am,’ or ‘the area where I am’. It designates a location.

Hear is the act of perceiving sound by way of the ear. Sometimes a bass instrument or a really loud sound can be felt vibrating through your body, but that’s not hearing. If you truly can’t remember which is which, then notice and remember that the word that relies on ears has the word ‘ear’ in it.

I once received a manuscript that had the town crier shouting, “Here ye, here ye!” I tied my brain in knots trying to figure out if he was really instructing the townspeople to gather around him. It didn’t seem right to me, but maybe I was wrong. So I googled it, and found out that it was supposed to be “Hear ye, hear ye!” Which translates from Medieval English to “Listen you, listen you.” And of course, you can’t listen if you don’t have an ear, so the correct word to use is hear.

Memorize the meanings of these two words, and then substitute that meaning when you use one of them, to see if you used the correct one.

I will build a house here. = I will build a house in this spot. That makes sense.

I will build a house hear. = I will build a house by listening. That doesn’t make sense.

Did you here the doorbell? = Did you in this location the doorbell? No, that doesn’t make sense.

Did you hear the doorbell? = Did you perceive the doorbell? That does make sense.

I hope you enjoyed this mini-lesson. What was the worst use of either here or hear that you’ve noticed?