When they're not there or their.
Homophones (a word that sounds like another word but is spelled different and means something different--NOT a phone for same sex couples) cause all sorts of problems for many people. If you are of a certain age, "certain" meaning "old", these words were beat into your head in Language Arts and a subject that was called "Spelling". Yes, we even had text books that were dedicated to teaching us how to spell. (I understand that now that is the responsibility of spell check.)
But a homophone will trick spell check, and then you have your writing telling someone that you are not "sore from your awesome workout," meaning your muscles ache, but that you some how managed to learn how to fly (soar) after your workout. I guess. Anyway, the there, there, and they're dilemma is all over FaceBook, Twitter, and anywhere else people type random crap. Even spell check underlines each one of those words in green just to help you make sure that you used the one you actually meant to use--if you know which one that is, of course (or if you are homophone confused: of coarse).
I have a solution for this. Let's just pick one and forget the other two. Yes. An English major, former editor and all-around word nut suggested to drop a grammar rule. Everyone knows that language is fluid and it is always evolving. So all of this confusion only makes people like me angry all of the time. If we just pick one, and decide that when you see that particular spelling of "there/their/they're", you will know what it means by the context of the sentence. (God, I hope it's a sentence.) And then people like me can move on to focus on other language abuses and atrocities.
There (or their or they're). Problem solved.
And if you need a reference for all homophones, here's a resource:
https://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/homophones-list.htm
So to be a good sport and not an English major snob, I will share that I recently perpetrated homophone abuse, to my great embarrassment. I was the writer for our Costa Rica team, and my professor found a place where I used "principal" (the person in charge) instead of "principle" (a fundamental idea). It was a first draft, so I hope that I would have picked it up in an edit. Still. Ugh.
