What Is the Difference Between Your and You're: Possessive Pronouns and Contractions

Learning English requires you to know and remember a lot of grammar rules. In addition, both spoken and written English have their own peculiarities and nuances.

In this post, we want to help you understand the difference between "your" and "you're." These two words are homophones, which means that they sound the same but have different meanings and are spelled differently.

Many English learners and even native English speakers mistake these two words since both "your" and "you're" are used on a daily basis in the English language, and the difference between them seems insignificant. This is such a common mistake, it was even a joke in one of the Friends' most dramatic episodes!

And the fact that these words sound the same only complicates the situation, making it even easier to put the wrong word in a written sentence. However, once you've got the hang of it, the difference between these two words becomes clear, like formal and informal speech.

With no further ado, let's learn how to tell them apart and make sure you can choose the correct word whenever necessary.

Contraction of the Words

When you see "you're," you deal with a contraction. A contraction is a shortened form of a word or a group of words, where an apostrophe is used to replace the missing letters or sounds in writing or speech.

Usually, contractions are used to shorten verbs, auxiliary (helping) verbs, or modals attached to other words. Here are several examples of the most commonly used contractions in English vocabulary:

However, there are also contractions of verbal phrases that are created without apostrophes, such as "gonna" and "wanna," which mean "going to" and "want to," respectively.

Additionally, an apostrophe can replace a letter of a noun if you have the intention to represent a particular style of speech in writing. For example:

This way, "you're" is a short form of two words - "you are" and is most often used to describe the person you are talking to or their actions. It is also often followed by the present participle (the verb form with the ending "-ing"). For example:

As a result, one of the easiest ways to check whether you're using "you're" in a sentence correctly or not is to replace it with two full words - "you are." If the sentence still makes sense, then the use of “you’re” is correct in this case. For example:

Pronouns and Possessive Forms

When it comes to the word "your," you are dealing with a possessive adjective. However, as to not get you confused with grammar nuances, let's let's go further in our language learning journey and deal with English pronouns and their possessive forms from scratch.

In English grammar, there are seven basic personal pronouns that can replace a noun or a noun phrase to avoid repetitions in sentences. These include I, you, he, she, it, we, they.

In turn, possessive forms of pronouns show that something belongs to someone and show who owns or has something. They are never used with apostrophes, which makes it easier to tell the difference between contractions and possessive pronouns.

There are two ways to describe ownership in the English language - by using possessive adjectives or pronouns. Let's take a closer look at them:

Possessive Adjectives

Possessive adjectives, also known as a conjoint form of possessive pronouns, are used in front of a noun (a thing) in the sentence and don’t need an article. A possessive adjective also helps simplify sentences that show the possession of a noun.

The possessive adjectives in English are as follows:

Here are several examples that use a possessive adjective in English sentences:

So, you should only use the word "your" when you want to mention in a sentence something that belongs to the person you're talking to. Here are more examples:

Possessive Pronouns

Possessive pronouns are also called independent or absolute possessive pronouns. The main difference between them and possessive adjectives is that you must use possessive pronouns without a noun related to them.

This way, we only use possessive pronouns when we already know which object we are referring to - it allows us to avoid repetitions of defined objects in the text.

Here are all the possessive pronouns in the English language:

In contrast to possessive adjectives, possessive pronouns are frequently located at the end of clauses or phrases in English sentences. Here are the examples:

In addition, you should also use possessive pronouns after a noun with a preposition "of." For example:

Summary

As you can see, you don't have to remember all the grammar rules to determine whether you need to use "your" or "you're" in a sentence. The foolproof way to avoid getting confused is to remember that "you're" is the contraction of the words "you are," whereas "your" means belonging to a person.

This way, you can quickly check if you are using them correctly by replacing "you're" with its full form to test if the sentence still makes sense. Practice makes perfect, so don't hesitate to return to this post as many times as you may need.

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