Many speakers tend to get confused between ‘There’, ’Their’ and ‘They’re’ and knowing how to use these three words correctly is an important step in learning English.

The words ‘There’ and’ Their’ are homophones. Homophones are words that are spelt differently but pronounced the same. It is a common mistake to replace one for the other.

‘There’ always refers to a place, whether concrete or abstract, whereas ‘Their’ shows belonging or possession. ‘They’re, on the other hand, is the short form of they are

Let’s look at these examples for each of them


How can anyone live there?

Let’s go there.

There will be a party tomorrow,


Let us buy their car.

Let us not go to their house.

Return their books tomorrow.


They’re sitting there in their car.

In this sentence, notice how ‘there’ is used to signify a place whereas ‘their’ is used to show possession. The word ‘they’re’ is a contraction of the word ‘they’ and ‘are’ and should not be confused with ‘their’ and ‘there’.