You're/Your

Today's grammar lesson is from another example I came across while editing. The names have been changed to protect the guilty.

When Katie had finished, she called me by name and said, "Sami, you're Peppermint Mocha."

If your immediate response to this was, "No, YOU'RE Peppermint Mocha," please have a lovely day. If not, read on.


"You're" and "your" are not interchangeable, contrary to popular belief. Here's a super easy way to know which one you should be using. 

"You're" is a contraction, meaning it's two words slurred together. What it really means is "you are." If you can replace the "you're/your" in a sentence with "you are," then you know you should be using the contraction ("you're"). If the sentence makes no sense when you replace "you're" with "you are," then do not use "you're." Seriously, don't do it. Use "your." 

Let's look at some examples.

Always eat you're/your vegetables.

Can you replace "you're/your" with "you are"? Let's see.

Always eat you are vegetables.

Hm. Now that doesn't make sense, does it? No. You are not vegetables, and even that wouldn't make sense. So you know the correct sentence must be:

Always eat your vegetables.

Yay hooray! Let's try another one just to show off your newfound grammatical prowess!

You're/Your my best friend.

Okay, now let's replace "You're/Your" with "You are."

You are my best friend.

Awesome! That's exactly what I mean! So I know the correct sentence is:

You're my best friend.

See how smart you are? Now let's go back to that sentence I gave you 20 minutes ago when I first got on my soap box.

When Katie had finished, she called me by name and said, "Sami, you're Peppermint Mocha."

Get it? What you're really saying is, "Sami, you are Peppermint Mocha." Ha ha ha! See why it's funny? It's because Sami isn't really a Peppermint Mocha! Seriously! She's not!

That's all. Please carry on with your lives.