The homonyms “there,” “they,” and “their” are often confused in English writing. “There” can be a pronoun, adverb, interjection, or adjective, while “they” is a possessive pronoun. “Their” is a contraction of “there is” and should not be confused with “they.”
Homonyms there, they, and are often confused in English writing. While readers will be able to understand the intention most of the time, learning to use them correctly can avoid confusion. The words actually have completely different meanings, as one can be used in multiple ways, depending on the context, one is a contraction and one is a pronoun.
The word ‘there’ can appear as a pronoun, as in ‘over there’, an adverb, such as ‘she went there’, as an interjection, or, in some English dialects, as an adjective, such as ‘that man there. ” Can be used to indicate a directional movement away from a place, such as when someone is told to “go there”, to clarify a sentence such as “the nail is there”, or in reference to a problem, such as “I’m d’ agree with him there.” A useful way to think of this word is that it contains another place, “here.” Often, “here” can replace “there” in a sentence, indicating that “there” is used to indicate a location in time or space.
You may also encounter “there is”, a contraction of “there is”. In formal written English, both words should be written, and remember not to confuse them with “they,” a possessive pronoun. As with all contractions, if you are unsure of the use of the word, stop and decide if “there is” can replace “there is” in a sentence. “There’s no place like home” is correct; “theirs is no place like home” is not. The downside is that the boat is theirs, it doesn’t exist.
“They” is a possessive pronoun. In a sentence like “Susan and Bill’s car,” the word could be used to replace the possessive proper noun construction to create a new sentence: “their car.” It is related to “they”, another pronoun that indicates a group of people. You might also see them in the form of phrases like “that dog is theirs.”
“I am” is actually a contraction of “am”, a sentence that contains a pronoun and a verb. It’s more commonly used in spoken rather than written English, when you want to say “they’re going to the store,” for example. In written English, “they” should always be able to replace “they”. In the sentence “they’re going to their home, over there,” you can see all three words in use.
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