TextCheck

Your vs you’re

You’re = you are. Your = belonging to you.

you’re

contraction of “you are”

Test: Read it as “you are”. Does the sentence still work?

  • You’re welcome.
  • You’re going to love this.

your

possessive: belonging to you

Test: Is something owned or related to “you”?

  • Is this your coat?
  • Thanks for your help.

The apostrophe marks the missing letter: you are → you’re.

Test yourself

Five sentences. Apply the test above to each one before you pick.

  1. _____ welcome to join us.

  2. Please send _____ CV by Friday.

  3. I think _____ right about that.

  4. Thanks for _____ patience.

  5. If _____ free later, call me.

Pick an answer for each sentence.

Why autocorrect doesn’t save you

Both spellings are real words, so a plain spell checker never flags them. It takes a grammar check that looks at the next word (“your welcome”, “you’re car”) to notice the mix-up, which is what TextCheck’s grammar rules do.

Catch it automatically

The grammar checker flags common mix-ups like this one by looking at the words around them, and the sentence checker can explain any sentence you’re unsure about.

Questions people ask

Is it “your welcome” or “you’re welcome”?

You’re welcome, meaning “you are welcome”.

Is “yours” ever spelled “your’s”?

No. Like all possessive pronouns, “yours” has no apostrophe.

Other grammar guides

Affect vs effectVerb or noun? The one-line testIts vs it’sThe apostrophe that means “it is”Their, there, they’reThree spellings, three jobs