Let’s be honest. You’re probably here because you just stared at a sentence for three minutes, and suddenly, the word "there" started looking like a foreign language. It happens to everyone. Whether you're firing off a quick email to your boss or trying to post a clever caption on Instagram, the moment you pause to wonder how do you spell there is the moment the English language decides to trip you up.
English is a bit of a nightmare. We have these things called homophones—words that sound exactly the same but are spelled differently and mean completely different things. "There," "their," and "they're" are the ultimate trio of confusion. It’s not just you; even professional editors and writers occasionally slip up when they’re typing too fast. But getting it wrong can make you look a little less polished than you actually are.
Most people aren't actually confused about the letters T-H-E-R-E. They’re confused about which version of that sound belongs in their specific sentence. It’s about context, not just the alphabet.
How Do You Spell There When You’re Talking About a Place?
If you are pointing at something, physically or metaphorically, you want there.
Think about the word "here." Notice how it’s hidden right inside the word "there"? That’s the easiest trick in the book. If you can replace the word with "here" and the sentence still basically makes sense in terms of direction or location, you’ve found the right spelling. "Put the keys over there" works because you could also "put the keys over here."
It’s a word of position. It’s also used as an introductory word, like in the phrase "There is a fly in my soup." You aren't necessarily pointing at a specific map coordinate for that fly, but you are establishing its existence in a "place."
Sometimes, we use it for abstract concepts. "There are many ways to skin a cat," for example. (Though, honestly, why are we skinning cats in this day and age? It’s a weird idiom.) Even in that abstract sense, the spelling T-H-E-R-E is your default setting. It’s the workhorse of the trio.
The Ownership Issue: Their vs. There
Now, things get messy when people start owning stuff.
When a group of people owns something, you use their. This is the possessive form. T-H-E-I-R.
I always tell people to look at the letter "i" in "their." It looks a bit like a person, right? And people own things. So, if you’re talking about "their house," "their dog," or "their strangely aggressive obsession with pickleball," you need that "i" in there.
Wait. I just said "in there." See? That was a location.
If you write "The're dog is barking," you’re essentially saying "They are dog is barking," which makes you sound like you’ve had one too many espressos. It doesn't work. Ownership requires the "i."
A Quick Reality Check on They’re
Then there’s the third sibling: they’re.
This one is actually the easiest to master because the apostrophe is a giant red flag. An apostrophe almost always means something is missing. In this case, the letter "a" is missing. "They’re" is just a lazy (and efficient) way of saying "they are."
- "They’re going to be late." (They are going to be late.)
- "I hope they’re bringing snacks." (I hope they are bringing snacks.)
If you can’t expand the word into "they are," then do not use the apostrophe. Simple as that. If you try to say, "Look over they’re," you’re saying "Look over they are," and your 3rd-grade English teacher just felt a localized tremor in the Force.
Why Brain Farts Happen Even to Experts
You might be wondering why you even need to ask how do you spell there when you’ve known this since elementary school.
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It’s called "word blindness" or "typoglycemia." When we write, our brains often move faster than our fingers. We think of the sound of the word, and our muscle memory just picks one of the versions we’ve typed a thousand times. According to linguistic researchers at Johns Hopkins University, our brains process words both as a whole and as a collection of parts. When you're tired or distracted, the "whole word" retrieval system grabs the most common version of a sound, regardless of whether the grammar matches.
Interestingly, the word "there" traces back to Old English thær, which has always been related to the demonstrative root meaning "that." It’s deeply baked into the Germanic roots of our language.
The Stakes of a Spelling Error in 2026
We live in an age of autocorrect and AI-driven grammar checkers. You’d think these mistakes would be extinct.
They aren't.
In fact, sometimes autocorrect makes it worse. It might "fix" a correctly spelled "their" into "there" because it misread your sentence structure. This is why human intuition still wins. In a professional setting—say, a LinkedIn post or a resume—using the wrong "there" can actually hurt your "perceived intelligence" according to a study published in the journal PLOS ONE. It’s unfair, but people judge. They assume if you didn't catch a basic homophone error, you might be careless with bigger details.
I once saw a billboard for a law firm that said "We're there for you," but they used "their." It stayed up for three weeks. I can only imagine how many potential clients drove right past because they didn't trust a lawyer who couldn't proofread a five-word sentence.
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Quick Mental Checklist for Your Next Email
Stop. Don't hit send yet. Run through this mental flow chart:
- Am I pointing at something? Use there.
- Can I replace it with "here"? Use there.
- Does it belong to someone? Use their.
- Can I say "they are" instead? Use they’re.
It takes about half a second.
Honestly, the most common mistake is people using "there" for everything. It’s the "safe" choice in their minds, but it's often wrong. If you find yourself doubting, just remember the "here" trick. It’s the most reliable tool in your belt.
Actionable Steps to Never Mess This Up Again
You don't need to go back to school to fix this. You just need a few habits.
First, start reading your important emails out loud. Your ears will often catch what your eyes missed. When you say "they are" out loud but see "there" on the screen, your brain will flag the mismatch.
Second, if you’re a chronic misspeller of this specific word, use a browser extension like Grammarly or LanguageTool, but don't follow them blindly. Treat them like a suggestion from a friend who is sometimes wrong.
Third, create a "mental anchor." For me, it's the "i" in "their" standing for "individual ownership." Once that clicked, I never looked back.
Finally, give yourself a break. English is a chaotic mess of a language. It’s three languages wearing a trench coat, pretending to be one. You’re going to mess up. Just catch it before the "Send" button does the damage.
Go through your last sent folder right now. Search for "there," "their," and "they're." See if you caught yourself in a mistake. If you did, don't sweat it—just fix the habit for the next one. Practice makes the spelling stick.