Their

How to spell their

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce their

What does their mean?

1. determinerBelonging to or associated with the people or things previously mentioned.

Their in a sentence

• They left their keys on the table.

• The children ate their lunches in the garden.

• It's their turn to wash up.

• Have you seen their new house?

• The cats curled up in their basket.

Where does their come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

This word comes from Old Norse, where 'þeirra' served as the genitive (possessive) form meaning 'of them'. It was carried into English by Scandinavian settlers during the Viking age and gradually replaced the native Old English form 'hira'. By the 1200s the Norse-derived 'their' had become standard across English, one of several pronoun forms (along with 'they' and 'them') that English borrowed wholesale from Old Norse rather than from its own Germanic stock. The spelling preserves the 'ei' vowel pattern, which is exactly the trap that leads writers to confuse it with the homophones 'there' and 'they're'. Remembering that 'their' contains the same 'hei' string as 'heir' (someone who inherits, and so owns) can help fix the possessive meaning in the spelling.

How the word is built

• Possessive form of "they".

Words that sound like their

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• there: In, at, or to that place; also used as a dummy subject to assert that something exists or happens.
• they're: A contraction of 'they are', used when a plural subject is doing or being something.