Is It “Your” or “You’re”? How To ALWAYS Pick the RIGHT One

It’s back! That pesky apostrophe is once again confusing people with two words that sound exactly the same but actually mean COMPLETELY different things.

“Your” and “You’re” sound like the same word when we say them out loud, which is probably why people mix them up in written language. So which word means what, and how can you make sure you NEVER get it wrong? There’s one easy way to keep them straight!

The Rule

“Your” is the possessive form of “you.” If I’m borrowing a truck that belongs to you, I have your truck (not “you’re truck”).

You’re book is over there on the table.

Your book is over there on the table.

Is that drink mine or yours?

May I borrow your pen?

“You’re” is the contraction of “you are.” The apostrophe indicates the missing “a.”

Your supposed to sit over there.

You’re supposed to sit over there.

Of course you’re invited!

He told me that you’re not attending the party later.

Genitive vs. Contraction

“Your” is the genitive form of “you”; “genitive” is just a fancy word for possessive. If you’re talking about something belonging to someone, you want “your” instead of “you’re.”

“You” is a personal pronoun, and NONE of the possessive forms of personal pronouns have an apostrophe (just like we talked about with “its” vs. “it’s”!).

By contrast, “you’re” is a contraction of “you are.” A contraction is one word that’s actually multiple words squished together with apostrophes to indicate missing letters. Some examples of contractions include “don’t” (“do not”), “can’t” (“cannot”), “I’m” (“I am”), and “she’s” (“she is”).

The Simple Test: How To Make Sure You ALWAYS Pick the Right One

So how can you make sure that you never mix up these words? The simple test is to try to substitute “you are.” If you can sub in “you are” and the sentence still makes sense, you need “you’re”! If the sentence doesn’t make sense with “you are,” you need “your.”

Let’s try it.

Let’s all go to (your or you’re?) house after school!

Sub in “you are”:

Let’s all go to you are house after school!

That doesn’t make sense, so we need “your” instead of “you’re”:

Let’s all go to your house after school!

Here’s one more:

I’m only going to the staff meeting if (your or you’re?) going to be there.

Sub in “you are”:

I’m only going to the staff meeting if you are going to be there.

That does make sense, so we need “you’re”!

I’m only going to the staff meeting if you’re going to be there.

It’s a simple test, but it’ll work every time!

Test Option #2

You can also think about whether there is any indication of belonging or ownership with the phrase in your sentence. If so, you need “your” to indicate possession.

I think Jim is the one who keeps stealing your pens.

In this sentence, we’re talking about pens that belong to you (pens you own), so “your” is correct.

What do you want to do for your birthday?

This sentence is about the birthday that belongs to you, or the birthday that you “own,” so you need the possessive “your,” not the contraction “you’re.”

Now you’re equipped with the right tools to help you pick the RIGHT word every time!