Looking For Wallets

They’re LookingFor Their Wallets Over There.

Here’s anotherbatch of homonyms: they’re, their, and there. With three of them to choosefrom, it’s easy to grab hold of the wrong one. So first, let’s take a look atwhat each of them means.

They’re – This is acontraction, and it always means ‘They are’ (or occasionally, ‘Theywere’). 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 wordindicates a location that is not here; an area that is some distance away.

Which of thefollowing sentences is correct?

1.     1. They’relooking for a lost dog.

2.    2.  Theirlooking for a lost dog.

3.     3. Therelooking for a lost dog.

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

Which of thefollowing sentences is correct?

1.    1.  They’relost dog came home.

2.     2. Theirlost dog came home.

3.     3. Therelost dog came home.

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

Which of thefollowing sentences is correct?

1.    1.  Ifound my wallet over there.

2.    2.  Ifound my wallet over their.

3.   3.   Ifound my wallet over they’re.

Answer: #1 iscorrect because the wallet was found in a different location. #2 makes nosense, 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 ‘theyare’.

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

‘There’ has theword ‘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 theword ‘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’tthink it will take you long to memorize what it means.