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Your or You're? 16 Real Mistakes and How to Fix Them
Your shows that something belongs to you ("your book"). You're is the contraction of "you are" ("you're late"). The two sound identical, which is why they are confused so often. Every example below is a real sentence that someone sent to Proofread Bot over the years.
The corrections are written in formal, academic English, so contractions are spelled out in full. Where a contracted or colloquial form is common in everyday writing, it is shown underneath as the informal version.
The one-step test
Read the word as "you are." If the sentence still makes sense, you need you're, or, in academic writing, the full form you are. If it does not, you need your.
1. "Your" where "you are" is meant
This is the more common direction of the error, and it usually appears before an adjective or a noun phrase describing the person.
✓ You are a fast runner.
Informal: You're a fast runner.
✓ You are not supposed to do that!
Informal: You're not supposed to do that!
✓ You are the best person I have ever met.
Informal: You're the best person I have ever met.
✓ You are not the person I thought you were.
Informal: You're not the person I thought you were.
✓ You are so rude, Holly.
Informal: You're so rude, Holly.
✓ You are right; I do not know how to play.
Informal: You're right, I don't know how to play.
✓ I trust you are well.
Informal: I trust you're well.
✓ You are going too fast.
Informal: You're going too fast.
Test: "You are a fast runner" makes sense, so the word must be you're or you are.
2. "You're" where possession is meant
The apostrophe makes this error look deliberate, but expanding the contraction exposes it immediately.
✓ Your hair is on fire.
✓ Is that your skirt?
✓ I like your sweater.
✓ Rick is your father.
✓ This was your biggest fear.
✓ How are you doing on your diet?
✓ I was glad to read your letter last week.
✓ You are able to walk to your friend's house.
Test: "This was you are biggest fear" is meaningless, so the correct word is your.
Should you write "you're" at all?
In academic writing, contractions are generally avoided, so the question often disappears: write you are in full. Many academic style guides also discourage addressing the reader as "you" at all. Instead of "You can see that the results are significant," write "The results are clearly significant." Our guide to contractions in academic writing covers this in more detail.
Why spell checkers miss it
Both words are spelled correctly, so an ordinary spell checker has nothing to flag. Catching the error requires reading the sentence for meaning. Paste your text into Proofread Bot and it will flag every your/you're confusion, along with related slips such as their, there, and they're and its and it's.