: They are = They're... when? When is it NOT appropriate to use the combined words of "they" and "are"? (e.g., They're) Is there a grammatical rule to only refer to people or can it also

@Martha805

When is it NOT appropriate to use the combined words of "they" and "are"? (e.g., They're)

Is there a grammatical rule to only refer to people or can it also refer to things?

Referring to printed paper forms: "They're in the back office."

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@Debbie451

Some style guides consider contractions to be informal, and therefore would not be used in certain contexts.

Beyond that, there's no grammatical restraint, either on they are vs. they're or the referent of the pronoun they. They is the plural pronoun for both he/she and it.

So "They are in the back room" can refer to two or more people or two or more objects. (I would not, however, mix them. If you have a woman in the back room who is holding a bunch of printed forms, you would say "She has them in the back room.")

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: They are = They're... when? When is it NOT appropriate to use the combined words of "they" and "are"? (e.g., They're) Is there a grammatical rule to only refer to people or can it also

More posts by @Martha805

: As described by Nonnal, it is less of a rule than a subjective guideline. Pronouns reduce redundancy and make a paragraph flow more easily. The use of the subject repeatedly will only draw

: It's very difficult to find a universal experience that everyone would find traumatic. It entirely depends on ones experiences and values. For example, I wouldn't be massively affected if I

: Do I need to make use of paragraphs when writing a novel and if so, how? This might be a stupid question but I am trying to write a small novel, and my structure just doesn't seem right.

: Is it bad writing or just the plot if the hero ends up being as evil as the villain in order to stop the villain's evil? The villain is evil; he does evil things to the world's people.

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