There, their, they’re – tired of figuring out which there is theirs? Or, for that matter, yours because you’re overwhelmed by the confusion. And the spell check really isn’t helping.

It’s amazing how the inconsistencies and unusual nuances and innuendoes of the English language can confuse even the most accomplished writer, or for that matter the most diligent editor. Spell check may catch some of these glaring errors, but not all. After all, there is more than one way to spell many of these homophones. These what? you ask. Homophones: the sound alike words with different meanings and slightly different spelling. To sum it all up quite simply, “Yes, English can be weird. It can be understood through tough thorough thought, though.” (analyticalgrammar.com)

So how do we differentiate the theres, theirs and they’re…s? There is a place where their belongs to a person that they’re going to conjugate (in the scientific sense of being combined with or joined to reversibly) as subject and verb in one. Make sense?

Here’s another one: will, well, we’ll. Sounds similar, but the meanings are quite different. Will you look down the well so that we’ll see if she’s there? And, it’s very easy to confuse the throughs, thru…s and threws. Through the door I ran before he threw the ball. The other thru is really more like slang: an informal form of through often used in texting. Had enough for one day?

Or how about here and hear. Well, the obvious aid to keep this straight is the word, ear, found inside of the hear that means to hear.

And then there’s the ‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’, a very commonly quoted mnemonic rule that only works on words like believe, collie, and friend. These words are examples of the use of ‘ie’ when it doesn’t follow a ‘c’ (though, if you look closely, in ‘collie’ it does follow ‘c’, a little ways beyond the ‘c’). And, when one looks at words like receive, receipt, ceiling, it is easy to see the mnemonic rule supporting the use of ‘ei’ when it does follow ‘c’. This rule works great, except on words like: weird, species, science. 

It doesn’t help that we now live in the age of high tech and frenzied texting. Acronyms have taken over for entire words, making the texting process on tiny keyboards speedier. The danger is that we are becoming a society that fails to recognize the value of proper spelling and the proper use of words. As writers, it is our duty, our responsibility, to be good spellers, without spell check.

We all have words we tend to confuse and misspell. Make lists and think of a word game to help you remember which witch is which. And don’t forget to monitor your innate dyslexia when madly typing out the best seller on your laptop. It’s ever so easy to interchange letters and create a word that spell check will approve, but really wasn’t the word you wanted in the first place. Like the exit sign to a parking lot that reads: “I paid, therefore I can exist.”