Your vs You're

A common mistake not only for students learning English but also for native speakers is the difference between Your and You're in written English.

This happens because both words sound the same when they are spoken.

What is the difference between Your and You're?

The most simple explanation is that:

Your = a possessive adjective. It shows possession, that something belongs to the person you are talking to. e.g. This is not my pen, it is your pen.

You're = You are. It is a contraction (or short way of writing). e.g. You're crazy = You are crazy

Where + To Be

WHERE is a question word that is used to ask about a place or location.
(= I want to know the place, position or location)

The following table shows you the word order of questions with Where when it is used with To Be.

Where	To Be	Subject	Example Answers
Where	am	I ?	You're in the hospital.
Where	are	you ?	I'm at work.
Where	is	he ?	He's at home.
Where	is	she ?	She's in the store.
Where	is	it ?	It's on the table.
Where	are	we ?	You're at my new job
Where	are	you ?	We're at school.
Where	are	they ?	They're at university.

You can also ask where things or places are:

Where	To Be	Subject	Example Answers
Where	is	my book ?	It's on the table.
Where	are	my books ?	They're on the desk.

Remember:
Is + singular word
Are + plural word.

Other examples of Where + To Be

• Where is the Statue of Liberty? It's in New York.
• Where is the Eiffel Tower? It's in Paris.
• Where are your parents right now? They're on holiday.
• Where is your favorite restaurant? It's downtown.

To Be - Present Tense

To Be - Affirmative

Subject	To Be	Examples
I	am	I am from New Zealand.
You	are	You are Chilean.
He	is	He is twenty years old.
She	is	She is a nurse.
It	is	It is a big dog.
We	are	We are intelligent.
You	are	You are students.
They	are	They are married.

To Be - Contractions

Contractions of To Be are very frequent when we are speaking.

To Be	Contraction	Examples
I am	I'm	I'm from New Zealand.
You are	You're	You're Chilean.
He is	He's	He's twenty years old.
She is	She's	She's a nurse.
It is	It's	It's a big dog.
We are	We're	We're intelligent.
You are	You're	You're students.
They are	They're	They're married.

To Be - Negative Sentences

The negative of To Be can be made by adding not after the verb.

Subject	To Be	Examples
I	am not	I am not from Spain.
You	are not	You are not Australian.
He	is not	He is not thirty years old.
She	is not	She is not a secretary.
It	is not	It is not a small cat.
We	are not	We are not stupid.
You	are not	You are not teachers.
They	are not	They are not single.

To Be - Negative Contractions

There are two ways of forming contractions of To Be in negative sentences. One is with a contraction of the subject and the verb (e.g. I am = I'm) OR a contraction of the verb and not (e.g. are not = aren't)

I'm not from Spain.	---	--------------*
You're not Australian.	OR	You aren't Australian.
He's not thirty years old.	OR	He isn't thirty years old.
She's not a secretary.	OR	She isn't a secretary.
It's not a small cat.	OR	It isn't a small cat.
We're not stupid.	OR	We aren't stupid.
You're not teachers.	OR	You aren't teachers.
They're not single.	OR	They aren't single.

* Notice that the only possible contraction for I am not is I'm not.

To Be - Questions

To create questions with To Be, you put the Verb before the Subject.

Affirmative	You	are	happy.
	Subject	Verb
Question	Are	you	happy?
	Verb	Subject

Affirmative	Question
I am intelligent.	Am I intelligent?
You are a student.	Are you a student?
He is a pilot.	Is he a pilot?
She is from Spain.	Is she from Spain?
It is a big house.	Is it a big house?
We are ready.	Are we ready?
You are doctors.	Are you doctors?
They are rich.	Are they rich?

To Be - Short Answers

In spoken English, we usually give short answers in response to questions.

Are you a student? - Yes, I am (a student). The last part (a student) is not necessary. We use shorts answers to avoid repetition, when the meaning is clear.

Question	Short Answers**	Short Answers
Am I intelligent?	Yes, you are.	No, you aren't.
Are you a student?	Yes, I am.	No, I am not.
Is he a pilot?	Yes, he is.	No, he isn't.
Is she from Spain?	Yes, she is.	No, she isn't.
Is it a big house?	Yes, it is.	No, it isn't.
Are we ready?	Yes, we are.	No, we aren't.
Are you doctors?	Yes, we are.	No, we aren't.
Are they rich?	Yes, they are.	No, they aren't.

** With To Be, We don't use contractions in affirmative short answers unless there is additional information after it (in which case they are no longer considered short answers).

To Be - Past Tense

To Be - Affirmative

Subject	To Be	Examples
I	was	I was tired this morning.
You	were	You were very good.
He	was	He was the best in his class.
She	was	She was late for work.
It	was	It was a sunny day.
We	were	We were at home.
You	were	You were on holiday.
They	were	They were happy with their test results.

To Be - Negative Sentences

The negative of To Be can be made by adding not after the verb (was or were).

Subject	To Be	Examples
I	was not	I was not tired this morning.
You	were not	You were not crazy.
He	was not	He was not married.
She	was not	She was not famous.
It	was not	It was not hot yesterday.
We	were not	We were not invited.
You	were not	You were not at the party.
They	were not	They were not friends.

To Be - Negative Contractions

The can make negative contractions of the verb To Be in the Past tense by joining the verb (was or were) and n't (e.g. were not = weren't). We don't make a contraction of the subject and the verb (e.g. I was).

I was not tired this morning.	OR	I wasn't tired this morning.
You were not crazy.	OR	You weren't crazy.
He was not married.	OR	He wasn't married.
She was not famous.	OR	She wasn't famous.
It was not hot yesterday.	OR	It wasn't hot yesterday.
We were not invited.	OR	We weren't invited.
You were not at the party.	OR	You weren't at the party.
They were not friends.	OR	They weren't friends.

* Notice that we don't have contractions for To Be in Past Tense affirmative sentences.

To Be - Questions

To create questions with To Be, you put the Verb before the Subject.

Affirmative	You	were	happy.
	Subject	Verb
Question	Were	you	happy?
	Verb	Subject

Affirmative	Question
I was late	Was I late?
You were sick.	Were you sick?
He was surprised.	Was he surprised?
She was from Italy.	Was she from Italy?
It was a big house.	Was it a big house?
We were ready.	Were we ready?
You were early.	Were you early?
They were busy.	Were they busy?

To Be - Short Answers

In spoken English, we usually give short answers in response to questions.

Was he from Japan? - Yes, he was (from Japan). The last part (from Japan) is not necessary. We use shorts answers to avoid repetition, when the meaning is clear.

Question	Short Answers**	Short Answers
Was I late?	Yes, you were.	No, you weren't.
Were you sick?	Yes, I was.	No, I wasn't.
Was he surprised?	Yes, he was.	No, he wasn't.
Was she from Italy?	Yes, she was.	No, she wasn't.
Was it a big house?	Yes, it was.	No, it wasn't.
Were we ready?	Yes, we were.	No, we weren't.
Were you early?	Yes, we were.	No, we weren't.
Were they busy?	Yes, they were.	No, they weren't.

** With To Be, We don't use contractions in affirmative short answers.

This - That - These -Those

	Singular	Plural
Here	This	These
There	That	Those

These words are called demonstrative pronouns and they are used to show the relative distance between the speaker and the noun.

We use this (singular) and these (plural) to refer to something that is here / near.

Examples:

• This is my car. (singular)
• These are our children. (plural)

We use that (singular) and those (plural) to refer to something that is there / far.

Examples:

• That is our house. (singular)
• Those are my shoes. (plural)

Note that the verb changes (i.e. singular / plural) depending on the pronoun that you use.

You can also use demonstrative pronouns with a noun.

Examples:

• This party is boring. (singular)
• That city is busy. (singular)
• These chocolates are delicious. (plural)
• Those flowers are beautiful. (plural)

If an action is near in time we tend to use this / these.
If an action has finished or is in the past we use that / those.

Examples:

• This is a good meal. (at the time of eating)
• Those girls we met last night were silly. (an event that happened in the past).

The expressions this is / that is are also common when you talk on the phone or you introduce people.

Examples:

• "Hello, this is Peter."
• Carol, this is my friend Simon. Simon, this is Carol.

There vs Their vs They're

A common mistake not only for students learning English but also for native speakers is the difference between There, Their and They're in written English.

This happens because both words sound the same when they are spoken.

Words that sound the same but have different meanings (and sometimes spelling) are called homophones. Therefore they're, their and there are Homophones.

Which words would make the following sentence correct?

• They’re/Their/There playing they’re/their/there video games over they’re/their/there.

The answer appears at the end of the post so let’s learn the rules meanwhile.

What is the difference between There, Their and They're?

THERE

There is the opposite of Here. It means “in that place” not here.

• A: Where is my book? – B: It’s over there.
• I will look for a hotel to stay when I arrive there.

There is/There are = to show that something exists.

• There is a book on the table
• There are many countries in Europe.

THEIR

Their is a possessive adjective which is used before a noun. It shows possession, that something belongs to them.

• Their house is big.
• All of their friends were crazy.
• The children put their books in their school bags.

THEY’RE

They’re is a contraction of they are.
e.g. They’re happy = They are happy

They’re is usually before an adjective or a verb ending in ING.

• They’re very interested in the project.
• I personally think they’re crazy!
• They’re singing loudly.

Example sentence...

So now you know the difference let’s try the original question:

• They’re/Their/There playing they’re/their/there video games over they’re/their/there.

The answer is:

• They’re playing their video games over there.

Why?

They’re playing (they’re is used before a verb ending in -ing making it the progressive tense)

Their video games (their is a possessive used before a noun to show possession)

Over there (there because it means not here, in that place)

There is - There are

We use there is and there are to say that something exists.

Positive Sentences

We use there is for singular and there are for plural.

• There is one table in the classroom.
• There are three chairs in the classroom.
• There is a spider in the bath.
• There are many people at the bus stop.

Contractions

The contraction of there is is there's.

• There's a good song on the radio.
• There's only one chocolate left in the box.

You cannot contract there are.

• There are nine cats on the roof.
• There are only five weeks until Christmas.

Negative Form

The negative is formed by putting not after is or are:

• There is not a horse in the field.
• There are not eight children in the school.
• There is not a tree in the garden.
• There are not two elephants in the zoo.

The Negative contractions are:

There's not = There isn't

There are not = There aren't

There Are with ANY

When we want to indicate that a zero quantity of something exists we use there aren't any.

• There aren't any people at the party.
• There aren't any trees in my street.

We also use this structure with uncountable nouns:

• There isn't any water in the swimming pool.
• There isn't any sugar in my coffee.

Questions

To form a question we place is / are in front of there.

Again we use any with plural questions or those which use uncountable nouns.

We also use there is / are in short answers.

• Is there a dog in the supermarket? - No, there isn't.
• Are there any dogs in the park? - Yes, there are.
• Is there a security guard in the shop? - Yes, there is.
• Are there any polar bears in Antarctica? - No, there aren't.
• Is there any ice-cream in the freezer? - Yes, there is.

How Many with Are There

If we want to find out the number of objects that exist we use How many in the following form:

How many + plural noun + are there (+ complement).

• How many dogs are there in the park?
• How many students are there in your class?
• How many countries are there in South America?
• How many Star Wars films are there?