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Common errors series: ‘your’ instead of ‘you’re’

‘Your’ is a word that denotes possession, for example:

“Class, please take out your workbooks.”

‘You’re’ is a contraction of the phrase ‘You are’. Since we are shortening ‘You are’ to ‘You’re’ we insert an apostrophe to show that some letters have been omitted. For example:

“You’re not going to believe what I just heard!”

In my editing and proofreading work, I often encounter sentences where ‘you’re’ has been inadvertently replaced with ‘your’. For example:

clearly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this case, “Thats why your following me” should be “Thats why you’re following me”.

Actually in the graphic above, the confusion between your and you’re is not the only error. ‘Thats’ should be ‘That’s’ to show ‘That is’ has been contracted to ‘That’s’.

To those of you in the U.S., Happy Memorial Day! To our soldiers who sacrifice so much to keep our world safe, we salute you!

Yours in crisp, error-free writing
Jessica xx

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