This is the first in a series of short pieces on homophones. (In case you’re puzzled by that word, it has nothing to do with telephones that all look the same.)
There, They’re and Their
In most accents, these three words sound near enough to identical to make them homophones. However, when written, their not interchangeable. Oops – I meant, there not inter… dammit! – I should have written, “However, when written, they’re not interchangeable”.
There
This word indicates the location or position of something. It’s the opposite of “here”. (Note, “hear” – a homophone of “here” – is not the opposite of “they’re” or “their”.)
“There” is usually further away than “here”.
Put the red ones here and the blue ones there.
It can also indicate a point in time or a performance or a book or something similar.
He read in a deep voice to the end of the page. There he paused and changed to a falsetto voice.
Another use for “there” is to indicate the fact or existence of something.
There is a worm at the bottom of our garden.
And of course, there’s that ubiquitous, and to my mind, semi-meaningless phrase, “to be there” for someone. (Why won’t you be here for them?!) We probably have the Jackson Five to blame for this.
They’re
This is a contraction. A contraction is the joining of two words in which one or more letters are omitted. The apostrophe is a placeholder that shows that letters have been dropped. In many contractions, the apostrophe doesn’t really add clarity, but it is incorrect to omit it.
“They’re” is a contraction of “they are”.
They are going to Sydney.
They’re going to Sydney.
Contractions aren’t (are not) normally used in formal writing. However, they can assist greatly in making documentation less formal and foreboding. I confess that I use contractions a lot.
Their
This is a possessive pronoun.
They went home, where their children were waiting for them.
Confusion Starts Now
The example above with the worm – that could have been written as
There’s a worm at the bottom of our garden.
If there was more than one worm there, you could write
There are two worms at the bottom of our garden.
or even
There’re two worms at the bottom of our garden.
If two neighbours were talking about the worms at the bottom of their gardens, they might say,
There are worms at the bottom of our gardens.
or even
There’re worms at the bottom of our gardens.
If you and I were watching them talking about the worms and you asked me what they were talking about, I could reply
They’re saying that there are worms at the bottom of their gardens.
or even
They’re saying that there’re worms at the bottom of their gardens.
And there you have it – a sentence with all three homophone variants used correctly. Completely contrived, but correct.