Timeline for "Your" vs. "you're": Why the confusion?
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
11 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Dec 27, 2013 at 3:18 | comment | added | ekhumoro | This doesn't fully answer the question. It's much more common to mispell "you're" as "your" than the other way around. But why? If people were wholly influenced by the sound of words, they would mispell "your" as "you're" about equally often. But they don't, so there must be other factors involved. | |
| Apr 16, 2012 at 21:20 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @Chris Dwyer: In my experience, these "homonymic typos" aren't uncommon in casual contexts like email, Internet chat, etc. Perhaps I say "not uncommon" because when they do occur, they're highly noticeable - when reading, I mean, not when writing. In general I wouldn't trust myself to proofread my own text because you tend to miss your own errors, but I'd almost bet my life I've never missed this particular kind of mistake. It's only made by competent speakers when their not checking they're words (or when there just messing about! :) | |
| Apr 16, 2012 at 21:04 | comment | added | Chris | @FumbleFingers I better get me a new doctor then! :) | |
| Apr 14, 2012 at 23:59 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @Chris Dwyer: I'm literate/well-educated, and certainly I sometimes write you're instead of your, and there instead of their, for example. But I wouldn't say I "struggle with it" - they're [their/there?!] just mistakes we make because orthography conflicts with phonetics. I suggest anyone who doesn't actually know the correct forms is by definition not even adequately-, let alone well- educated. | |
| Apr 14, 2012 at 23:56 | comment | added | CesarGon | I don't buy this, sorry. All speakers learn their native language by ear, whatever it is; in Spanish, my native language, "vaca" and "baca" are phonologically identical, but no one writes "baca" for "vaca". | |
| Nov 2, 2010 at 13:09 | vote | accept | Alexandru | ||
| Oct 7, 2010 at 20:06 | comment | added | OneProton | @Chris. Could be. Could also be very strong visual learners. | |
| Oct 7, 2010 at 19:56 | comment | added | Chris | @Claudiu You mean linguistic intelligence, right? Also, I know plenty of people with high levels of education that still struggle with it. | |
| Oct 7, 2010 at 17:44 | comment | added | Claudiu | @Chris: people associate mis-use of your vs. you're with lower intelligence / level of education. probably one of the reasons it is so picked on | |
| Oct 7, 2010 at 15:35 | comment | added | Chris | What about native language learners who never really struggled with homophone confusion? Maybe heavy readers? | |
| Oct 6, 2010 at 15:29 | history | answered | OneProton | CC BY-SA 2.5 |