Dissecting English: Your VS You’re

Once again, here we are.

And again, I do not possess impeccable English. It’s just that people made me mad for using words/sentences that’s clearly does not belong in which they were used.

Last time, it was I-don’t-care VS I-don’t mind.

Today, it is Your VS You’re.

.

While the former may have tiny bits of similarities, the latter don’t. Especially if you are writing it down.

I just don’t understand why there are people who used YOUR and YOU’RE so interchangeably! I mean, they meant completely different. To illustrate, let me quote the Oxford Dictionary.

‘Your’ is an adjective, a determiner. Which means, either

1. belonging to or associated with the person or people that the speaker is addressing: what is your name?

2. belonging to or associated with any person in general: the sight is enough to break your heart
informal used to denote someone or something that is familiar or typical of its kind: I’m just your average man in the street, she is one of your chatty types

3. (Your) used when addressing the holder of certain titles: Your Majesty, Your Excellency

‘You’re’, on the other hand, is a contraction for YOU ARE. For example, I want to describe a person with an adjective. Like beautiful. So I say, 

You’re beautiful. 

And I pronounce them, YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL.

Then very casually, I asked a random teenager to write it down. And he wrote,

YOUR BEAUTIFUL.

*facepalm*

I do agree at some point the pronunciation of YOUR and YOU’RE are similar. There were people who were like me who prefer to pronounce YOU’RE as you are. And YOUR as yore. Makes it easy to the listener to understand what you are saying, no?

And then they were people who pronounce the two words completely alike. I can't blame them, it's just how they roll.

So there are people who got confused between the two. But, I am happy to report that this mistake was one of the blunders that even people who were speaking only English in their whole life are not immune to.

I mean, they were people who asked,

Your welcome or you’re welcome?

Cik Atun: Your fat? Or you’re fat? I guess I prefer the latter.