Beware The Homonyms: Sound Isn't Everything

I received a couple of e-mails today from well-known marketers.

The first had this subject line:

Did You Here About This?

While this sounds correct, it is a confusion between 2 words that sound alike - homonyms.

The correct form is:

Did You Hear About This?


The next 2 subject lines both had the same mistake, and it is one of the common ones discussed in another post:

If you missed out...your still in luck!

If you are one fo the last to open this chances are your too late!‏
(Notice the typo "fo" for "of". Careful proofreading of at least the subject line would have helped!)
You're and Your sound alike, but mean 2 different things. You're is a contraction for "you are", and if you substitute "you are" when reading "you're", you can easily see whether "your" or "you're" is the right one.

Your is a possessive, as in your car, your hair, your wealth. If you're is used instead of your, then it would read you are car, you are hair, etc. Simply remembering that "you're" is "you are" and "your" means ownership should help you keep them straight.

English is a tricky language, and is made more difficult with all the words that sound the same.

If you want to see a very comprehensive list of homonyms, go to
http://www.cooper.com/alan/homonym_list.html

Until next time, watch out for those sneaky homonyms and above else, enjoy this wonderful language!