Use You're and Your

Mistaking "you're" for "your" - or vice versa - is a common writing error most people have made at least once. This article will show you how to use "you're" and "your" correctly.

10 Second Summary

1. "You're" is short for "you are."
2. Use "you're" when describing someone: You're beautiful.
3. "Your" shows possession.
4. Use "your" when showing possession: Your dog is cool.

Steps

Using You're and Your

1. Understand the proper usage of the word you need. The best way to do that is to sound it out. There is a replacement test that will tell you for certain which word will fit. Read the sentence with you are in place of where the your/you're is intended. If it makes sense, then you're would be right. If not, then your would fit. You could also replace your with my in the sentence. If it fits, then use your.
2. Create a mnemonic to help you distinguish between the words. A mnemonic is a device that helps you remember something. You may find a mnemonic helpful when remembering the difference between you're and your. Elements such as parallelism and vivid imagery are usually effective mnemonic tools.
   • Consider the sentence "If you're writing it you're, you're writing it right." You are doing something when you write, and thus the contraction you're is correct.
   • You could also try something like the sentence "Your Outraged Unicorns Race," where the first letter of each word spells out the correct usage. Because the unicorns belong to you, they're your unicorns.
3. Write you're as a contraction or a combination of the words you and are. Other examples of contractions include doesn't for does not, they're for they are, and can't for cannot.
   • "You're a good friend" means "You are a good friend."
   • "I don't know what you're talking about" means "I do not know what you are talking about."
4. Remember that you're is actually a combination of two words. It thus fulfills two very important roles in a sentence or clause. Because it includes both a pronoun and a verb, you're will always be the subject and at least part of the verb of any clause in which it appears.
5. Write your as the possessive form of you. The possessive form refers to something that a person has, something that belongs to the person in question, or the person you are talking to. Your reflects ownership, as in "yours, mine, and ours".
   • "Is your stomach growling?"
   • "Your book is on the table."
6. Remember that the word your will usually not be followed by an adjective. In most cases, your will not be followed by an adjective (a word that describes something) when that adjective is describing the person that you are talking to.
   • In other words, saying "Your very kind" will almost never be correct. "Your very kind" would only be correct if someone were describing a noun, as in "Your nice son brought me my coat." Here, your nice is correct because nice is describing the person's son.
7. Take a look at some examples. Each of the following examples shows an incorrect use of your/you're, and why it is incorrect.
   • "I can't read you're handwriting."
     • Incorrect, because the contraction for you are is being used in place of the possessive form of you. "I can't read you are handwriting"' doesn't make sense. It should be replaced with your.
   • "If your hungry, then you should probably eat something."
     • Incorrect because there is no possession in question. You can be hungry, but in English you don't possess hunger. This passes the replacement test. Rewriting it with you are fits. Your should be replaced here with you're, or you are.
   • "I think your very smart."
     • Again, incorrect. The "very smart" does not belong to the person that you are talking to — this doesn't make any sense. Replace your with you're, or you are.
   • "I'm smarter than you're"
     • Correct, because the contraction for you are has been used in place of the possessive form of you. However, this unconventional usage is likely to confuse people, so avoid ending a sentence with you're even if it's grammatically correct.

You're and Your Usage Chart

Doc:You're Your Usage

Tips

• Just remember "You're not spelling your words correctly," and it all falls into place.
• Keep in mind that the word your will never be followed by the words the, a, or an.
• Simple grammatical errors, such as incorrect use of your and you're, can harm how others perceive your credibility when they read your compositions such as essays and résumés. It is in your best interest to learn how to use these words properly.
• There is another word, yore, that sounds just the same as you're and your. Yore refers to times long past and isn't used often in casual speech.

Related Articles

• Use English Punctuation Correctly
• Avoid Colloquial (Informal) Writing
• Use Apostrophes
• Use There, Their and They're
• Spell
• Become an Advanced English Speaker
• Use Generic Pronouns
• Use Hyperbole
• Use Tell and Say Properly

See also

• Spell a Difficult Word
• Study for a Spelling Test
• Win a Spelling Bee
• Memorize Words for a Spelling Bee
• Study for a Spelling Bee
• Know the Difference Between Lose and Loose
• Use Than and Then
• Use There, Their and They're
• Avoid Common Spelling Mistakes when Writing a wikiHow Article
• Learn to Remember Spellings of Words

Read more ...

What links here

• Use There, Their and They're
• Use Than and Then
• Use Worse and Worst
• Use Its and It's
• Choose Between "I" and "Me" Correctly
• Spell
• Copyedit a wikiHow Article
• Know the Difference Between Lose and Loose
• Know the Difference Between Rise and Raise
• Study for a Spelling Test

Read more ...