Grammar Matters: Everyone Needs There Own Farecard

Lucky for this station manager, a signature wasn’t required.  No such luck for us at work with emails, letters, and other documents.  Grammar does matter.  People do make judgment calls based on our written word. 

There, their, and they’re.

• Use there when referring to a place, whether concrete (“over there by the building”) or more abstract (“it must be difficult to live there”).  Ask yourself: If you wrote there, will the sentence still make sense if you replace it with here?

There is a new blog post on blackgirlgrown.

• Use their to indicate possession. It is a possessive adjective and indicates that a particular noun belongs to them.  Ask yourself: If you chose their, will the sentence still make sense if you replace it with our?

My friends have lost their minds.

Everyone Needs Their Own Farecard

• Remember that they’re is a contraction of the words they and are. It can never be used as a modifier, only as a subject (who or what does the action) and verb (the action itself).  Ask yourself:  If you used they’re, will the sentence still make sense if you replace it with they are?

I’m glad that they’re so nice to new strangers here.

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