In the previous three quizzes we learnt about homophones. We learnt that homophones are words with different spellings and meanings but the same pronunciation.
Look at these two words - FOUL and FOWL. When they are written you will not have any difficulty in understanding their meaning. However, when they are used in spoken English you may get confused! Imagine if you were watching a basketball game and heard the commentator say, ‘Jordon’s FOUL caused the team to lose the match’. You would not be confused if you are a basketball fan. You would understand the use of the word FOUL. On the other hand, if you are not a basketball fan, you might have wondered why FOWL is used in basketball and what has ‘chicken or hens’ got to do with the game!
In order not to get confused by spoken English you need to understand the context in which the words are used. Earlier, we learnt about ITS, IT’S, THERE, THEIR and THEY’RE. In this quiz we learn about one more pair of words that are homophones - YOUR and YOU’RE.
YOUR is a pronoun meaning 'belonging to YOU' or 'associated with YOU'.
YOU’RE is in fact two words, YOU and ARE, contracted to form YOU’RE. YOU'RE is similar to IT’S and THEY’RE. YOU is the pronoun of the second person and can be used in the singular or plural and ARE is a verb. Take a look at these examples:
‘YOUR house is bigger than mine’ uses the word YOUR as a possessive pronoun indicating possession and describing somebody’s house.
‘YOU’RE coming with us to the new movie’ uses the word YOU’RE to describe someone, that is, in the expanded form YOU ARE, and now it is clear that the word is referring to someone.
To recap:
YOUR is a possessive pronoun describing a noun which belongs to 'you'.
YOU’RE is actually two words - YOU and ARE - contracted to form YOU’RE.
Remember these simple tips and take the quiz that follows to understand the correct way to use YOUR and YOU’RE in sentences.