A
- abdicate, abrogate, and arrogate. To abdicate is to resign from the throne, or more
loosely to cast off a responsibility.
To abrogate is to repeal a law or abolish an arrangement. To arrogate is to attempt to take on a right or responsibility to which one is not entitled.
- Standard :
Edward VIII abdicated from the throne
of the United Kingdom.
- Standard :
Henry VIII abrogated Welsh customary law.
- Non-standard :
John abrogated all responsibility for the
catering arrangements (should be "abdicated")
- Non-standard :
You should not abrogate to yourself
the whole honour of the President's visit (should be "arrogate")
- accept and except. While they sound similar, except is a preposition that means "apart from", while accept
is a verb that means "agree with", "take in", or "receive". Except is also rarely used as a verb, meaning to leave out.
- Standard : We accept all major credit cards, except Diners Club.
- Standard : Men are fools... present company excepted! (Which means "present company excluded")
- Non-standard : I had trouble making friends with them; I never felt excepted.
- Non-standard : We all went swimming, accept for Jack.
- acute and chronic. Acute means "sharp", as an acute illness is one that rapidly worsens and reaches a crisis. A chronic illness may also be a severe one, but it is long-lasting or lingering.
- Standard : She was treated with epinephrine during an acute asthma attack.
- Standard : It is not a terminal illness, but it does cause chronic pain.
- Non-standard : I have suffered from acute asthma for twenty years.
- Non-standard : I just started feeling this chronic pain in my back.
- adverse and averse. Adverse means unfavorable, contrary or hostile. Averse
means having a strong feeling of opposition, antipathy, or repugnance.
- Standard : They sailed
despite adverse weather conditions.
- Standard : He was averse to taking his medicine.
- Non-standard : He is not adverse to having a drink now and then.
- affect and effect. The
verb affect means
"to influence something", and the noun effect means "the result of". Effect
can also be a verb that means "to cause [something] to be", while affect as a noun has technical meanings in psychology, music, and aesthetic theory: an emotion or subjectively experienced feeling.
- Standard . This poem affected me so much that I cried.
- Standard . Temperature has
an effect on reaction spontaneity.
- Standard . The dynamite
effected the wall's collapse.
- Standard . He seemed completely devoid of affect.
- Non-standard . The rain
effected our plans for the day.
- Non-standard . We tried
appeasing the rain gods, but to no affect.
- aggravate and mitigate. Aggravate means "to make worse". Mitigate means "to make less bad". " Mitigating factor" refers
to something that affects someone's case
by lessening the degree of blame, not anything that has any effect at all.
- algorithm and logarithm. An algorithm
is a sequence of instructions, often used for calculation and processing data. A logarithm is a mathematical function that indicates, for a given base, the power (i.e. exponent) to which the base must be raised in order to produce that number.
- Standard . The manager
developed an algorithm by which he
could determine which candidate would best
meet the needs of the company.
- Standard . The pH is equivalent to the negative logarithm of the concentration of hydrogen ions in solution. Thus, a solution of pH 6.2 will have an [H+] concentration of 10 −6.2 mol/L
- allusion, illusion, and hallucination. An allusion is an indirect or metaphorical reference to something; an illusion is a false picture of something that is there; a hallucination is the seeing of something that is not there.
- assume: to suppose to be true, especially without proof, and presume: to take for granted as being true in the absence of proof to the contrary.
Presume can also mean "take excessive liberties", as in the adjective form "presumptuous".
- Standard . They had assumed that they were alone, so they were surprised when they heard a third voice join their song.
- Standard . Doctor Livingstone,
I presume?
- assure: to intend to give the listener confidence, and ensure: to make certain of, and insure: to purchase insurance.
- Standard . I assure you that I will have your car washed by the time you return.
- Standard . When you mow the lawn, ensure there are no foreign objects in the grass.
- Standard . I plan on purchasing the collision policy when I insure my car.
B to D
- cache and cachet. A
cache (IPA: kæʃ) is a storage place from which items may be quickly retrieved. A
cachet (IPA: /kaʃˈɛɪ/)
is a seal or mark, like a wax seal on an envelope or a mark of authenticity on a product. Note that cachet is almost always used figuratively to mean "marked by excellence,
distinction or superiority".
- Standard : The pirates
buried a cache of jewels near the coast.
- Standard : Living in New York City definitely has a certain cachet.
- Non-standard : If your
web browser is running slowly, try
emptying the cachet.
- can't and cant. Can't is a contraction of cannot .
Cant has a number of different meanings, including a slope or slant, or a kind of slang or jargon spoken by a particular group of people. "Canting arms" is a coat-of-arms which represent meaning of the bearer's surname.
- Standard : I can't understand the dialogue in this book because it is written in cant.
- Standard : Heralds don't
pun; they cant
- Non-standard : I cant swim; I have never taken lessons.
- complementary and complimentary. Things or people that go together well are complementary , whereas complimentary refers
to a free bonus gift item or giving someone a compliment.
- Standard : Orange and blue are complementary colors.
- Standard : This sales item comes with a complimentary gift.
- Standard : Jane was very complimentary about your new home.
- contiguous, continual, and continuous. Contiguous
means "touching" or "adjoining in space"; continual means
"repeated in rapid succession"; continuous means "uninterrupted" (in time or space).
- Standard : Alaska is not one of the forty-eight contiguous states.
- Standard : The field was surrounded by a continuous fence.
- Standard : The continuous
murmur of the stream.
- Standard : His continual
interruptions are very irritating.
- dawn and sunrise. Dawn is frequently used to mean "sunrise", but technically it means the twilight period
immediately before sunrise.
- diffuse and defuse. To
diffuse is to disperse randomly, whereas to defuse is to remove the fuse from a bomb, or in general to render a situation less dangerous. Diffuse can
also be used as an adjective, meaning "not concentrated".
- Standard : The situation
was defused when Sandy explained that
he was gay, and had no interest in Frank's wife.
- Standard : The smell of urine slowly diffused into the still air of the hall.
- Standard : The spotlights
were turned off, leaving the stage
lit by the diffuse glow of the lanterns.
- disassemble and dissemble. To disassemble means "to dismantle" (e.g. to take a machine code program apart to see how it works); to dissemble means "to tell lies".
- disburse and disperse. Disburse means "to give out", especially money. Disperse means "to scatter".
- discreet and discrete. Discrete means "having separate parts", as opposed to contiguous.
Discreet means "circumspect".
- disinterested and uninterested. To be disinterested in something means to not be biased about something (i.e. to have no personal stake in a particular side of an issue). To be uninterested means to not be interested in or intrigued by something.
- Standard : As their mutual best friend, I tried to remain disinterested in their argument so as not to anger either.
- Standard : Though his initial reaction suggested otherwise, he maintains
that he remains uninterested in the
business proposition.
- Non-standard : The key
to attracting a member of the opposite sex is to balance between giving attention to him or her and appearing disinterested.
- dissect and bisect. Bisect means "to cut into two"; dissect means "to cut apart", both literally and figuratively. Disect is an archaic word meaning "to separate by cutting", but has not been in common use since the 17th century.
- Standard : We dissected
the eye of a bull in biology class today.
- Standard : She dissected
Smith's dissertation, pointing out scores of errors.
- Standard : The Americas
are bisected by the Panama canal.
- Non-standard : We disected
the eye of a bull in biology class today.
E to H
- economic and economical. Economic means "having to do with the economy". Economical
means "financially prudent, frugal" and
also figuratively in the sense "sparing
use" (of time, language, etc.)
- Standard : Buying in bulk can often be the most economical choice.
- Standard : The actor should be economical in his use of movement.
- Standard : He attended
the School of Economic and Business
Sciences.
- Non-standard : Leading economical indicators suggest that a recession
may be on the horizon.
- Non-standard : The actor
should be economic in his use of movement.
- e.g. and i.e. The
abbreviation e.g. stands for the Latin exempli gratiā "for example", and
should be used when the example(s)
given are just one or a few of many. The abbreviation i.e. stands for the Latin id est "that is", and is used to
give the only example(s) or to otherwise qualify the statement just made.
- Standard : A Briton is a British citizen, e.g. John Lennon.
- Standard : Tolkien's The Hobbit is named after its protagonist, i.e., Bilbo Baggins.
- Non-standard : A Briton
is a British citizen, i.e., Paul McCartney (at the last count, there were about 60 million Britons—Sir Paul is far from being the only one)
- emigrate is the process of leaving a country; immigrate is the process of arriving in a country—in both cases, indefinitely.
- eminent, preeminent, imminent, and immanent. Eminent , originally meaning "emerging", means "illustrious or highly-regarded". Preeminent means "most highly-regarded". Imminent means "about to occur".
Immanent (less common
than the other two, and often theological) means "indwelling, pervading".
- Standard : The eminent
doctor Jones testified on behalf of
the defence.
- Standard : Rumours that
war was imminent soon spread through
the population.
- Standard : God's grace
is immanent throughout the entire creation.
- exacerbate and exasperate. Exacerbate means "to make worse". Exasperate means "to exhaust", usually someone's patience.
- Standard : Treatment by
untrained personnel can exacerbate injuries.
- Standard : Do not let Jack talk to the state trooper; he is tactless and will just exasperate her.
- flesh and flush. To
flesh out is to add flesh to a skeleton, or metaphorically to add substance to an incomplete rendering. To flush out is to cause game fowl to take to flight, or to frighten any quarry from a place of concealment.
- Standard : The forensic
pathologist will flesh out the skull
with clay.
- Standard : The beaters
flushed out the game with drums and torches.
- Non-standard : This outline
is incomplete and must be flushed out.
- flounder and founder. To flounder is to be clumsy, confused, indecisive or to flop around like a fish out of water. A flounder is also a type of flatfish. To founder is to fill with water and
sink.
- Standard : The ship is damaged and may founder.
- Standard : She was floundering on the balance beam.
- Non-standard : The ship
is damaged and may flounder.
- flout and flaunt. One
flouts a rule or law by flagrantly ignoring it. One flaunts something by showing it off.
- Standard : If you have it, flaunt it.
- Standard : He continually
flouted the speed limit.
- Non-standard : If you have it, flout it.
- Non-standard : He continually
flaunted the speed limit.
- hay and straw. Hay is a grassy
plant used as animal fodder, while
straw is the dry stalk of a cereal plant (e.g., barley, oats, rice, rye), after the grain or seed has been removed. It is used to line an animal's stall or for insulation.
- hang. To hang something or someone in the present tense, one uses the same form. In the past, however, pictures are hung and criminals are hanged .
- hangar and hanger. The
aeroplane is in the hangar; the coat is on the hanger.
- historic and historical. In
strict usage, historic describes an event of importance—one that shaped history or is likely to do so. Historical merely describes something that happened in the past.
- Standard : The president
made a(n) historic announcement. (The announcement was of historical importance.)
- Non-standard : The office
kept an archive of historic records.
(The records are not necessarily of
historical importance—they are simply records from the past.)
- hoard and horde. A
hoard is a store or accumulation of things. A
horde is a large group of people.
- Standard : A horde of shoppers lined up to be the first to buy the new gizmo.
- Standard : He has a hoard of discontinued rare cards.
- Non-standard : Do not horde the candy, share it.
- Non-standard : The hoard
charged when the horns sounded.
I to J
- imply and infer. Something
is implied if
it is a suggestion intended by the person speaking, whereas a conclusion is inferred if it is reached by the person listening.
- Standard : When Tony told me he had no money, he was implying that I should give him some.
- Standard : When Tony told me he had no money, I
inferred that I should
give him some.
- Non-standard : When Tony
told me he had no money, he was inferring that I should give him some.
- inherent and inherit. A
part inherent in X is logically inseparable from X. To inherit is a verb, meaning "pass down a generation".
- Standard : Risk is inherent in the stock market.
- Standard : The next president inherits a legacy of mistrust and fear.
- Non-standard : There is
violence inherit in the system.
- it's and its. It's is a contraction that replaces it is or it has (see apostrophe). Its is the possessive determiner corresponding to it , meaning "belonging to it".
- Standard : It's time to eat!
- Standard : My cell phone has poor reception because its antenna is broken.
- Standard : It's been nice getting to meet you.
- Non-standard : Its good
to be the king.
- Non-standard :
The bicycle tire had lost all of it's pressure.
- irony. Something is ironic if it is the opposite of what is appropriate, expected, or fitting.
- Standard : It is ironic that the center for the handicapped has no wheelchair ramp.
- Standard : It is ironic that Alanis Morissette wrote a song called " Ironic" about
things that are supposedly ironic even
though she evidently does not know
what constitutes irony.
- Non-standard : It is ironic that Bill O'Reilly is right-handed and conservative while Bill Clinton is left-handed and liberal.
- Non-standard : It is raining on our wedding day! Is it not ironic?
K to L
- lay ( lay , laid , laid , laying ) and lie ( lie , lay , lain , lying ) are often used synonymously. Lay is a transitive verb, meaning that
it takes an object. "To lay something" means to place something. Lie , on the other
hand, is intransitive and means to recline (and also to tell untruths, but in this case the verb is regular and causes no confusion). The distinction between these related verbs is further blurred by the fact that past tense of lie is lay . An
easy rule of thumb is to replace the words with sit and set . If sit makes sense (e.g. sit down) then lie should be used (lie down). If the sentence works with set (e.g. set the book on the table) then lay should be used (lay the book on the table).
- Standard : I lay my husband's work clothes out for him every morning. Yesterday, I decided to see if he paid attention to what I was doing, so I
laid out one white sock and one black. He did not notice!
- Standard : You should not lie down right after eating a large meal. Yesterday, I lay on my bed for half an hour
after dinner, and suffered indigestion as
a result. My wife saw me lying there and made me get up; she told me that if I
had waited for a couple of hours I could have lain down in perfect comfort.
- Non-standard : Is this
bed comfortable when you lay on it? (Should be lie )
- Non-standard : Yesterday I
lied down in my office during the lunch hour. (Should be lay )
- Non-standard : There was
no reason for him to have laid down in the middle of the path, it unnerved me to see him laying there saying nothing. (Should be "have lain down" and "him lying there")
- Non-standard : Lie the
baby down, and change his diaper (Should be "lay", as "lie" is intransitive)
- Non-standard : "It could
be easy for those guys to lay down. After I left, they could have just
laid down.
- Non-standard : I'm going
to lay out in the sun and work on my tan. (Should be lie . In general, the term lay out when referring to sunbathing
is always grammatically incorrect.)
- levee and levy. A
levee is a structure built along a river to raise the height of its banks, thereby preventing nearby land from flooding
(see: dike). To levy is to impose (1) a tax,
fine or other assessment, or (2) a military draft; as a noun, a levy is an assessment or army thus gathered. The two words share a common root, but they are not considered interchangeable in Standard English. Because they
are homophones,
misuse is usually only apparent when
observed in writing.
- Standard : The Netherlands
is well known for its elaborate system of levees.
- Standard : This statute
allows the state to levy a 3% tax.
- Non-standard : Recent storms
have weakened the levy.
- loathe and loath or loth: Loathe is a verb meaning "to strongly dislike", and "loath" or "loth" means "unwilling" or "reluctant"
- Standard : I loathe arrogant people.
- Standard : I was loath to concede defeat.
- Standard : I was loth to submit to a body-cavity search until I saw who would be administering it.
- lose and loose. Lose can mean "fail to win", "misplace", or "cease to be in possession". Loose can mean the opposite of tight, or the opposite of tighten. Lose
is often misspelled loose , likely because lose has an irregular rhyme for the way it is spelled: it is more common for words ending -ose to rhyme Rhymes:English:-əʊz, like nose , or rose
, but lose rhymes Rhymes:English:-uːz, like news or confuse
. This may cause poor spellers to guess the correct spelling should match another -uːz rhyming word like
choose , although choose is itself also an exception to the regular rhyme for words ending -oose (typically such words, including loose , rhyme Rhymes:English:-uːs, like goose
or caboose ).
- Standard : We cannot afford to lose customers to our competitors.
- Standard : A screw is loose and I need a wrench to tighten it.
- Non-standard : If the team cannot score any points, they will loose the game.
M
- macerate, marinate, and marinade. (From post-classical Latin
marina brine, short for classical Latin aqua marina sea water.) In Standard
English, marinade is
a noun and not a verb. Macerate means "to soften by steeping in a liquid" and in culinary terminology is used for non-protein items, specifically fruit . The word macerate is also used in science "to soften bone, rock etc. in a liquid".
- Standard : The meat will taste better if you marinate it in olive oil before cooking.
- Standard : Prepare the
marinade by mixing vinegar and soy
sauce.
- Non-standard : Marinade the
meat in wine for half an hour.
- Standard : Macerate the
fruit in wine for half an hour.
- Non-standard : Marinate the
fruit in wine for half an hour.
- me, myself, and
I. In a traditional prescriptive grammar, I is used only as a subject, me is used only as
an object, and myself
is used only as a reflexive object, that is to say when the subject is " I " and the object
would otherwise be " me ". Myself is often used incorrectly, often in a form of hypercorrection. Like the other reflexive pronouns, myself should be used only when both the subject and object of the verb are the speaker, or as an emphatic pronoun (intensifier).
- Standard : Jim and I took the train.
- Standard : He lent the books to Jim and me.
- Standard : That is I in the picture. (This is very formal, and seldom found in speech.)
- Acceptable : That is me in the picture. (This is typical in informal English.)
- Standard (intensifying): I myself have seen instances of that type.
- Standard (reflexive): I
hurt myself. I did it to myself. I played by myself. I want to enjoy myself.
- Non-standard :
Me and Jim went into town.
- Non-standard : It was clear to Jim and I that the shop was shut.
- Non-standard : As for myself, I prefer the red. (Just use me here)
- Non-standard : He is an American like myself. (Just use
me )
- Non-standard : He gave
the paper to Jim and myself. (Just use me )
- Non-standard : My wife
and myself are not happy with all the development going on in town. (Just use I )
- mitigate and militate. To mitigate is to make something milder. To militate is to fight or exert pressure for something to happen or not to happen.
- Standard : The seriousness
of your crime was mitigated by the provocation you were under.
- Standard : Over-protective practices in this factory militate against increased efficiency.
- Non-standard : Over-protective practices in this factory mitigate against increased efficiency.
N to R
- novice and novitiate. A novice is a prospective or trainee member of a religious order. The novitiate is the state of being a novice, or the time for which one is a novice. However, a novice monk or nun is often incorrectly described as "a novitiate" (perhaps confused with "initiate").
- of and have. In some dialects of spoken English, of and the contracted form of have
, 've , sound alike. However, in standard written English,
they are not interchangeable.
- Standard : Susan would
have stopped to eat, but she was running late.
- Standard : You could have warned me!
- Non-standard : I should
of known that the store would be closed. (Should be "I should've known")
- overestimate and underestimate. There is frequent confusion between things that cannot and
should not be over/underestimated, though the meanings are opposite.
- Standard : The damage caused by pollution cannot be overestimated
(i.e. it is so enormous that no estimate, however high, is excessive)
- Standard : The damage caused by pollution should not be underestimated (i.e. it is wrong to regard it as minor)
- Non-standard : The damage
caused by pollution cannot be underestimated (literal meaning: it is so minimal that no estimate is too small. Intended meaning: one of the previous two)
- past and passed. Past refers to events that have previously occurred, while
passed is the past tense of "to pass", whether in a congressional action or a physical occurrence.
- Standard : Congress passed
the bill limiting the powers of the President.
- Standard : History is mainly concerned with the events of the past.
- Non-standard : He past
my house on his way to the store.
- Quartary and quaternary. Quartary (from quartarius) is the fourth member of an ordinal number word series beginning with (primary, secondary, tertiary) and continuing with (quintary, sextary, ...). Quaternary (from quaternarius) is the fourth member of a distributive number word series beginning with (singular, binary, ternary) and continuing with (quinary, senary, septenary, octonary ... centenary).
- In biology, the non-standard usage "
Quaternary structure"
is so firmly entrenched that to refer to "Quartary structure" would be incorrect.
- redundant does not mean "useless"
or "unable to perform its function".
It means that there is an excess of something, that something is "surplus to requirements" and no longer needed, or that it is obsolete.
- Standard : A new pill that will instantly cure any illness has made antibiotics redundant. (Antibiotics
could still be used to cure illnesses, but they are no longer needed because a better pill has been invented)
- Standard : The week before Christmas, the company made seventy-five
workers redundant.
- Non-standard : Over-use of
antibiotics risks making them redundant. (This should read: over-use of antibiotics risks making them worthless)
- regimen and regiment. A
regimen is a system of order, and may often refer to the systematic dosing of medication. A regiment
is a military unit
- Standard : The sick soldier was removed from his regiment.
- Standard : The sick soldier was ordered to complete a regimen of amoxicillin.
- reign and rein. A
reign refers to the rule of a
monarch. Reins are the straps used to control the movements of an animal (typically a horse). Thus, to "take the reins" means to assume control, and to have "free rein" means to be free of constraints.
- Non-standard : ...the Suns
gave Sports Illustrated's Jack McCallum free reign of practices...
- Non-standard : Bobby Jindal,
a whiz kid takes the reigns of Louisiana's Department of Health and Hospital
S to T
- sensual and sensuous. Both
words mean "to do with the senses". Sensual
is more often applied to a pleasure or experience, or to a person's character; sensuous
to someone or something of enticing appearance.
- Standard : Don Juan is the most sensual character in fiction.
- Standard : Ascetics believe
in avoiding all sensual pleasures.
- Standard : Marilyn Monroe
looks extremely sensuous in this film
clip.
- set and sit. When used as a verb, to set means "to place" or "to adjust to a value", whereas to sit means "to be seated".
- Standard : Set the pot upon the stove.
- Standard : Set the temperature-control to 100 °C.
- Non-standard : Set down
over there.
- Non-standard : Sit the
pot on the stove.
- Standard : Sit on the chair.
- shrink and shirk. To
shirk means "to consistently avoid", "to neglect", "to be too afraid to engage". To shrink means "to contract", "to become physically smaller in size"; also, to shrink away means "to suddenly jerk away from something in horror". However, to
shrink from may also mean "to hesitate or show reluctance toward".
- Standard : I will not shirk discussion.
- Standard : I will not shrink from discussion.
- Standard : She shrank away from me.
- Non-standard : I will not shrink discussion.
- Non-standard :
I will not shirk from discussion.
- sight, site, and
cite. A site is a place; a sight is something seen. To cite is to quote or list as a source.
- Standard : You are a sight for sore eyes.
- Standard : I found a list of the sights of Rome on a tourist site.
- Standard : Please cite
the sources you used in your essay.
- Standard : You must travel to the site of the dig to see the dinosaur bones.
- Non-standard : One must
be careful on a construction sight.
- Non-standard : I will site the book I saw the statistics in.
- temblor and trembler. A temblor is an earthquake. A trembler
is something that trembles.
- than and then. Than is a grammatical particle and preposition associated with comparatives, whereas then is an adverb and a
noun. In certain dialects, the two words are usually homophones because they are function words with reduced vowels, and this
may cause speakers to confuse them.
- Standard : I like pizza more than lasagne.
- Standard : We ate dinner, then went to the movies.
- Non-standard : You are
a better person then I am.
- there, their, they're, and there're. There refers to the location of something. Their means "belonging to them".
They're is a contraction of "They are". There're is a contraction of "there are".
- Standard : There're five
of them and they're all coming to the restaurant for their dinner; we will meet them there.
- there's, where's, etc.
A common spoken mistake is using a singular contraction when it should be plural in words like there's and where's . This stems from the fact that there're and where're are more difficult to enunciate and are often avoided for that reason in colloquial speech.
- Non-standard : Where's the
cars? (Should be Where're )
- Non-standard : There's many
types of cars. (Should be There're )
- trimester. A trimester
is a period of three months. Because it is most commonly used in conjunction with a nine-month academic year or a nine-month term of human pregnancy, it is sometimes wrongly assumed that trimester is simply a synonym for one third.
- Standard : One calendar year contains four trimesters.
- Non-standard : Without further
delay, then, comes ESPN.com's annual (and
overdue) First Trimester Report, ushering folks back to the office by taking stock of the season's opening third:
U to Z
- venal and venial. These
words are sometimes confused; venal means "corrupt", "able to be bribed", or "for sale"; venial means "pardonable, not serious".
- Standard : According to
Catholic doctrine, eating meat on a
Friday is a venial sin, but murder is a mortal sin.
- Standard : All ages have examples of venal politicians.
- whose and who's. Whose is a question, who's is a contraction for "who is".
- won't and wont. Won't is a contraction for "will not", while wont is a rare,
slightly archaic word meaning "accustomed" or "inclined to" (as an adjective) or "habit or custom" (as a noun). The two are traditionally pronounced
the same.
- Standard : He won't let me drive his car.
- Standard : He spent the morning reading, as he was wont to do.
- Standard : He took a walk in the evening, as was his wont.
- Non-standard : I wont need to go to the supermarket after all.
- you're, your, yore, and ewer. While
they sound the same in many dialects, in standard written English they all have separate meanings. You're is a contraction for "you are", and your is a possessive pronoun meaning "belonging to you". When in doubt, just see whether you can logically expand it to "you are". The third homophone,
yore , is an archaism meaning "in the distant past", and is almost always used in the phrase "in days of yore". The fourth is the name of a once common piece of household equipment made obsolete by indoor plumbing:
the large jug holding washing water.
- Standard : When driving,
always wear your seatbelt.
- Standard : If you're going out, please be home by ten o'clock.
- Non-standard :
You're mother called this morning.
- Non-standard :
Your the first person to notice my new haircut today!