Damien at the Speed of Life

Hopefully this post will help people understand the commonly misused spellings of these homophones: to, two, and too and there, they’re, and their.  I wrote a series of worksheets on these for the Cerritos College Writing Center when I worked there at age 26 in 1996 :)  My then boss, the director of the writing department Beverly Whitson-Cotton, thought so much of them, I heard a few years later from a co-teacher they were still being reproduced and passed out.  I made them after seeing the same errors over and over again.  It was easier to just hand them a handout instead of say the same thing again and again.

Here’s basically what the handouts said:

Homophones are words with the same sound but different spellings and different meanings.  Two commonly misused words are the homonyms:

to, two, and too -and- their, they’re, and there

to=a preposition, or a a directional type of word:  ”I am going to the store.”  It is also a form of an infinitive verb such as “to run” or “to play.”

two=the number

too=a modifer meaning “in excess.” (This one’s easy to remember because it has an “extra” o, as in an “excess” o)

there=a place

they’re=a contraction … “they are”

their=possesive pronoun: “their car … etc”

Well, I’m sure my old worksheet was much better but that’s the basic run-down.  I make typos all the time but I know the proper usage of these words.  Do you?  Another great resource I recommend for common errors and helps with writing is Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style.