Their/They're/There

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Home : 2003 : January : 25

Their/They're/There
By dave

I had many students getting these homophones mixed up. I taught them the obvious "they are" for THEY'RE. I told them to read each sentence they wrote with /ther/ and asked if they could substitute the words "they are."
With THEIR, I taught the kids that this word is almost always followed by a noun (their house, their idea, their father). With THERE, I told them to substitute the word HERE, and the sentence should still make sense:
There are 12 people in the room.
Here are 12 people in the room.
I know there are exceptions, but this helped quite a bit. After teaching these rules, give

the kids a cloze sentence quiz with THEIR, THEY'RE, or THERE deleted.