Our next lesson contains words that we affectionately call “Wacky Words” in our curricula. Wacky Words are those that have confusing partners, similar spellings or meanings, etc. as other words.
The words there and their are Wacky Words because they are homophones. Homophones are words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings.
You will remember what a homophone is if you remember that homo means same and phone means hear…thus, homophones are words that sound the same when you hear them, but are not the same when you see them.
You can remember many homophones if you learn little tricks. There and their also have little memory tricks!
1. There
a. Has the word here in it: there.
b. Remember, here and there.
c. Used when you say There are….or There is...
d. Examples:
i. There are seven cats on the barn.
ii. There is one more piece of cake.
iii. Put the books over there.
2. Their
a. Their has the word heir in it: their.
b. Remember heir is the owner of the throne.
c. Their is a pronoun that shows ownership.
d. We call this a possessive pronoun.
e. The heirs are the owners of the throne. The throne is theirs.
f. Examples:
i. Their home is up on the left.
ii. I hope their dogs are not loose.
iii. They had their Christmas celebration yesterday.
Note: Do not show possession to their with an apostrophe! Pronouns are not made possessive with an apostrophe. Theirs is the way to show possession in the sentence: That house is theirs. (NOT: their’s!)
