You’re vs. Your

You’re vs. Your

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You’re and your are homophones. They sound exactly the same, but they are different words with different meanings.

You’re = you are

You’re is a contraction of you are.

Put simply, you’re always means you are. Nothing more, nothing less.

Examples:

  • You’re going to love this film.
    = You are going to love this film.

  • You’re never too old to learn something new.
    = You are never too old to learn something new.

  • “You’re a wizard, Harry.” – Hagrid [Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, 2001]
    = You are a wizard, Harry.

Your = Possession

Your is a possessive determiner. It shows that something belongs to or is associated with the person being spoken to.

For example:

  • I still have your pen.

Here, your tells us that the pen belongs to the person being spoken to.

More examples:

  • You forgot your phone.

  • Your dog is just adorable.

  • Your secret is safe with me.

Choosing Between You’re and Your

To check whether we are using you’re or your correctly, we can use a simple test.

– Replace the word with you are. If the sentence still makes sense, use you’re. If it doesn’t, use your.

  • You forgot your phone.

Now let’s apply the test and replace your with you are:

  • You forgot you are phone.

When we replace your with you are, we get ‘You forgot you are phone.’

This doesn’t make sense – we’d be saying you are a phone, not that you own one. So we know to use your here, not you’re.

✅ – You forgot your phone.
❌ – You forgot you’re phone.

Let’s look at another example:

  • You’re going to be late.

Replace you’re with you are:

  • You are going to be late.

Here, you are works perfectly, so we know to use you’re.

✅ – You’re going to be late.
❌ – Your going to be late.

Quick Practice – You’re vs. Your

Test yourself on you’re vs. your with our interactive practice tool:

You’re vs. Your
Click anywhere to begin
Fill in each blank with either you’re or your.

The full question list and answers are below.

Instructions: Fill in each blank with either your or you’re.

  1. __________ turn.

  2. __________ standing on my foot.

  3. __________ going the wrong way.

  4. Is this __________ water bottle or mine?

  5. __________ only as old as you feel.

  6. __________ not going to believe this.

  7. I think __________ wallet fell out in my car.

  8. __________ parcel arrived this morning.

  9. __________ going to miss __________ train.

  10. “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, __________ right.” – Henry Ford
Show Answers [Click]
  1. Your

  2. You’re

  3. You’re

  4. your

  5. You’re

  6. You’re

  7. your

  8. Your

  9. You’re / your

  10. you’re

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