Whether we’ve committed the act ourselves or just been a witness to the tragic event, I think that we can all agree that it’s about time that people started using your and you’re correctly. Yes, they are both pronounced exactly the same; however, they each mean very different things.
[spacer]Your is the possessive form of you.
If you own a dog, it’s your dog. What’s that sound? It’s your stomach rumbling.
You’re is the contraction of the words you and are. “You’re” should only be used when it can be replaced with the words “you are” and the sentence retains its meaning.
You’re reading this post. What are you? You’re a writer.
To the chagrin of many Facebook commenters, it’s a fact that your and you’re cannot be interchanged without significantly altering the meaning of the sentence (or making it completely meaningless in some cases,) but after reading this, I know you won’t have any issues going forward.
Find someone using the incorrect word? Help us all out and share this post with them.
Challenge of the day: Think of a sentence using both your and you’re in which the two words can switch places and the sentence will still make sense (even if the meaning changes.) Post your answers in the comments below.
