(For Miles.)

Possessives Places Contractions Verbs
our . . are
. here . hear
. where we’re were
their there they’re .
its . it’s .
your . you’re .
his, her, my . . .

Read across the rows to see words that are easily confused with each other. Read down the columns to see the patterns.

Things to note:

  • All of the contractions have apostrophes ‘.

  • Nothing in this table that isn’t a contraction has an apostrophe. “Its roof is red” doesn’t have an apostrophe even though “its” is a possessive. This makes “its” different from noun possessives (“The house’s roof is red”), but the same as “his”, “her”, and “their” (“Her hair is red”).

  • The place words all have “here” in them: “here”, “t_here_”, and “w_here_”.

  • Nothing that isn’t a place name has “here” in it: “Their hands are wet”, “They’re leaving”.

If you notice you’re using a word in this table, think about which kind of word it is (Possessive, Place, Contraction, or Verb), or which column it fits into. If you’re using “its”, would “his” also work? Or would you use a verb such as “we’re” — in which case you should be using “it’s” instead.

Once again, I’m sorry about English spelling — I would have done it differently. It’s not my fault.