Ask WordMum: Your vs You’re
This month’s instalment of the Ask WordMum series looks at using your and you’re correctly! Read on for some advice, tips, and tricks, with some examples so you can see it in action.
Our Question
How do I know when to use your or you’re?
Terrible Advice
Embrace your inner seagull and make everything mine! Problem solved.
WordMum Says
For this one, we need to understand the two forms of this word in more detail. These words operate similar to its and it’s in which the former (no apostrophe) indicates possession while the second (apostrophe) indicates a contraction of two words.
Your (possessive pronoun)
This indicates something that belongs to the other person (you) and is typically followed by a noun (or an adjective/adverb and noun combination). The noun you own (X in your X) is typically the object or subject of the sentence.
It is a type of possessive that is not indicated by an apostrophe; possessive pronouns are one of the few exceptions to the rule that the possessive must be indicated by an apostrophe and an s. Other examples are his, her, and my. Similarly, yours does not use an apostrophe, just like hers doesn’t. So when using this form of the word, it looks like this in your writing.
You’re (contraction)
This one is short for you are and the apostrophe represents the missing letter and space. It is typically followed by an adjective or verb. You is typically the subject of the sentence, not whatever follows you’re. So you use this when you’re (you are) writing.
When trying to decide which form to use, I find it is useful to ask myself: can I replace it with you are? If you can, you want you’re. If you can’t, use your. Most importantly, it must not change the meaning of the sentence, which is the key here: it must mean the same thing you were trying to say with the shortened version.
Example Time!
Is that your house?
The house in this phrase belongs to ‘you’, so we want the possessive form. You are house doesn’t work in this context (nor does it make sense in most contexts), so we know to use your here.
Do you know what you’re doing?
In this one, you could replace you’re to make the phrase what you are doing and it does make sense. It also means the same as the shortened version. That confirms that we should use the contraction here.
Your attitude is abominable.
You possesses the attitude in this (somewhat accusatory) phrase, so that tells us which spelling to use.
Replacing it with you are attitude doesn’t make sense, though you could switch it up to be you are abominable if you wanted. In that case, you could simplify it further and go with you’re abominable. Calling the person’s attitude abominable instead of the whole person is a little kinder, though.
You’re amazing.
Simple and straightforward, this is a whole sentence on its own. It has the same meaning when we extend it to you are amazing, so we know the contraction works here.
If we tried the possessive version, it doesn’t make sense as a whole sentence: your amazing is incomplete and lacks a noun and verb. Your amazing what? Your amazing smile? This still isn’t a complete sentence; what is this smile doing?
One Last Rule
Both of these words have a rule in common: they make no sense at the end of a sentence.
Your must always be followed by another word, so cannot be used at the end of a sentence. That’s what happened to your… what? Leg? Hope? Sentence structure?
In this case, you may be using the wrong form of the possessive pronoun, and actually want yours. That’s what happened to yours does make sense, assuming the thing in question (that is yours) was previously identified in context.
You’re is a more interesting and less clear case. Grammatically, you can have you are at the end of a sentence, but it’s only acceptable in its full form. I want to be where you are makes perfect sense as a sentence. However, I want to be where you’re doesn’t.
Similar to your, there is an expectation that you’re is followed by something. Spelling out the whole words (you are) removes that expectation.
So there you have it! Does that help you know which word to use where? Can you apply your new knowledge when you’re writing? I hope so!
Is there a usage I haven’t covered? Do you have a different word you want to have clarified? Then ask WordMum by commenting or contacting her on the Discord server.
There’s more to come, so keep watching this space!