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Knowing when to use You're and Your


RazKnows

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They sound the same when you are just talking it but let's break it down a little bit.

"When is your basketball game?" I'm asking when is your basketball game.

"You're such a nice person" I'm telling someone they are nice.

"Is this your wallet?" I'm asking if this is somebody's wallet.

"Look both way before you're crossing the street" I'm telling someone to look before crossings the street

So they're very close sounding but they make a big difference in what you're trying to say. Hope that helps!

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Unfortunately, this has become a common grammatical error to mistake "you're" and "your." 

"You're" is a contraction; it means "you are" as in "You're taking the train tomorrow."

"Your" is a possessive pronoun, meaning that something belongs to "you" as in "your house." 

But unfortunately, although these are clearly two distinctly different words and parts of speech they are still used incorrectly frequently these days.  I admit this is one of my pet peeves; I find it annoying to see this grammatical error so frequently. 

This very same topic is being discussed at great length on another thread.  It would be best to continue at this thread:

http://linguaholic.com/english-grammar/your-vs-you%27re/

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  • 3 weeks later...

Personally, I think that it's easy to remember which one to use. But I constantly see my friends using "Your cute" and "Your pretty" and "You're cat is so cute". It frustrates me, to say the least. Especially because everyone who does this is 18 and over, and their first language WAS English.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I agree your and you're are constantly misused. I believe people who speak English as their first language are the most common who make this error, and I think this is out of laziness, and now they have adopted 'your' from using it so much. The use of slang has made it easy to type or write short hand, people can not be bothered to write a full sentence. The amount of times I have been on Facebook and someone has used slang to write a status and I have not got a clue what they are saying!!

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  • 1 month later...

The simplest way to tell which one to use - "your" or "you're" - is to remember that the apostrophe in "you're" is there to replace a letter that's missing. It's a contraction of "you are", whereas "your" is a possessive pronoun ("your hair is longer than mine").

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They sound the same when you are just talking it but let's break it down a little bit.

"When is your basketball game?" I'm asking when is your basketball game.

"You're such a nice person" I'm telling someone they are nice.

"Is this your wallet?" I'm asking if this is somebody's wallet.

"Look both way before you're crossing the street" I'm telling someone to look before crossings the street

So they're very close sounding but they make a big difference in what you're trying to say. Hope that helps!

Using your instead of you're is a common writing error most people made at least once. It is also a grammatical mistake that can be disproportionately confuse the reader. If you know how to differentiate the two you will never mix them up. The best way not to make this mistake is to sound them out. Writing your in the possessive form of you, referring to something that a person has.Something belonging to the person in question or the person you are talking to. "Your" reflects ownership. Remember you're is a combination of two words that fulfills two very important roles in  a sentence or clause. Because it includes both a pronoun and a verb. English can be complicated, because there's an exception to every rule. Keep in mind that the word "your" will never be followed by the words the, a, or an.     

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This is a very common grammatically error. I didn't know that it was so pervasive. I don't understand why many Americans who have gone through the school system have difficulty distinguishing between the two. I have finally learned to ignore it.

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Unfortunately this common error has become so prevalent that I see it on a daily basis. The internet is the place where I encounter this error the most. I blame it on grammar nazism fobia, people do not correct the error when they see one because they are afraid to be called a grammar nazi.

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I don't know why people get to confused by that. I learned this when I was 7. Just remember that "you're" is "you are." If you are unsure about the usage, substitute it in your sentences. If "I love you're sweater" is substituted with "I love you are sweater" then you can tell it is wrong.

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  • 2 weeks later...

A lot of small errors in grammar are common because they just don't matter as much anymore. Using the context it's easy to see what the writer means, and our increased ability to communicate means most writing now is of casual unimportance.

It used to be if you were writing out a letter it had a direct purpose and any errors could reflect badly on you, possibly with dire consequences. Now it's everyday Facebook status updates or random forum posts, comments quickly made and forgotten.

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I agree that the you're/your mix up is frustrating to say the least, especially coming from people whose first language is English. I teach second grade, and I am constantly reminding the students of the difference. Since they are still learning their spelling, they also often mix up "there" and "their", yet I find English-speaking adults rarely make this mistake, and I'm wondering why this is. Why is it more socially acceptable to pass "your" for "you're"? As I teacher I really strive to clear up the confusion and reasoning behind the different spellings of these two words so that it will stick with these kids when they grow up.

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  • 4 months later...

I think the simplest way to look at it is that your is speaking of ownership and you're is the short form of you are. If you stick to you're being a short form it should be quite easier since it carries an apostrophe.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have never really had a problem with "your" or "you're". It seems totally logical to me when to use one form or the other. But I see this mistake made so often, even amongst native English speakers.

I think some of the posts above contain really good information of how to remember the rules about "you're" and "your".

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