24/08/2026
Three little words. Same sound. Completely different jobs.
And they cost more marks in GCSE English than almost anything else I see.
There = a place. “Put it over there.”
Their = it belongs to someone. “Their homework.”
They’re = they are. “They’re late again.”
Here’s the trick I give my students: read the sentence out loud and swap in “they are.” If it still makes sense, it’s they’re. If it doesn’t, you’re choosing between there and their.
The thing is, most kids do actually know the rule. They just don’t stop to check when they’re writing at speed under exam conditions. That’s not carelessness, it’s a habit that never got built.
So we build it. Slowly, in their own writing, until the check happens without thinking.
Send this to the parent whose kid still writes “their going to school.” You know the one.
And if the same mistakes keep turning up in their English work, comment TUTOR and we’ll show you how we find where the gap actually started.