There, Their, They're

[Bathsheba]

Maz: No! This thread was mainly started because of a discussion with my 16yo DD! She STILL can't wrap her head around the different uses of "their, they're, there". Up until recently she said that she didn't care. We used to lock horns about it. But the other day (when I corrected her on FB) she actually said "thanks" in a non-annoyed way. Then she added that she's decided that she now cares about her spelling because she now cares if people think she is literate or not. This change has come about from her changing schools... previously she failed everything and was totally disengaged from learning... but at her new school she has surprised herself by doing really well. She is now gaining confidence and is wanting to build on it. Hence her "fine tuning". So I was just wondering whether other people wanted to do some fine tuning too

I'm learning a fair bit in this thread! Thanks everyone

Lulu: Practise and practice: I'm fairly certain that one relates to a doctor's surgery and one relates to doing something over and over... but like you i sometimes get them mixed up. The same thing applies to principal and principle... but I can remember that the "pal" version is for the headmaster.