#AtoZChallenge: Y is for Your and You’re

For the A-Z challenge, I am posting writing and editing tips to help you improve and enhance your writing.

Y is for Your and You’re

It’s nearly the end of my first A-Z Challenge and I can’t quite believe I’ve managed to write twenty-four blog posts so far about writing and editing! So today I’m going to keep it short.

ryan

I’m sure you all know the difference, but just in case:

You’re: contraction of ‘you are’.

“You’re looking particularly gorgeous in this picture.”

Your: second person possessive adjective. ‘Your’ is used to describe something belonging to you. It is always followed by a noun or a gerund (a noun made from a verb by adding -ing).

“Could I please have your number?”

On a side note, ‘yours’ is an absolute possessive, and so doesn’t need an apostrophe to show possession. This is also true for ours, theirs, mine, his and hers.

Now, I wonder if I can find a picture of Ryan to use for ‘Z’…

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4 comments

    1. That’s a really common one – especially when you’re writing quickly. And of course ‘it’s’ can only be used as a contraction and not as a possessive, so that can make it all the more confusing. English is certainly a tricky language!

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