Meaning & use
their
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Meanings
determinerbefore a noun
Belonging to or connected with people, animals, or things already mentioned.
Grammar: Always comes before a noun: their house. Used for plural owners, and sometimes singular they.
Patterns
- their + noun
- their own
- their best
The students left their bags outside.
The dogs waited by their bowls.
determinerbefore a noun
Belonging to or connected with one person whose gender is unknown, unspecified, or nonbinary.
Grammar: Widely accepted with singular they, everyone, each person, or a named person using they.
Patterns
- each person their
- someone their
- everyone their
Everyone should bring their own lunch.
Rio said they lost their keys again.
Common combinations
- their own
- The children packed their own snacks.
- their best
- The volunteers did their best under pressure.
- their house
- They painted their house bright blue.
- their + plural noun
- The players checked their helmets twice.
Word family
Commonly confused: their or there? their or they're?
their vs there
There points to a place or introduces existence: there is a problem. Their shows possession.
their vs they're
They're is a contraction of they are; their only shows ownership before a noun.
Practice
Everyone should wash ___ hands before dinner.
Choose one answer.
With singular “everyone,” modern standard English accepts gender-neutral “their.” “There” is a place/existence word, and “his” wrongly assumes male gender.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “their”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.