you're or your?

[Pyae-sone-naing]

Hello! Which one is correct? Why?
(a) The best gift that God has given you was you're precious smile.
(b) The best gift that God has given you was your precious smile.
I changed (a) to (b) because (a) doesn't make any sense to me. But one of my friends claims (a) is completely right and he even asks me to work on grammar. Am I really wrong?

Regards,

 

[Rover_KE]

Welcome to the forum.:-D

No, you are right. Tell your friend that you're is a contraction of you are.

It is he who needs to work on grammar.

 

[emsr2d2]

You are absolutely right. Point out to your friend that "you're" is a shortened version of "you are". Ask him if he thinks "The best gift ... was you are precious smile" sounds correct. If he thinks it does, he has a serious problem with his English.

(Cross-posted with Rover. Again!)

 

[Grumpy]

You are right, and your friend is wrong. Point out to your friend that "you're" is the shortened way of expressing "you are".

To be absolutely correct, the full phrase should either be
a. "The best gift that God has given you is your precious smile", or
b. "The best gift that God gave you was your precious smile".

Ooops! I must speed up my typing....

 

[emsr2d2]

Pyae-sone-naing, feel free to print out this page and show it to your friend. If he doesn't believe three native speakers who answered your question within one minute of each other, all saying you are right, you might want to find a different friend to practise your English with!

 

[TheParser]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


Hello, Pyae-sone-naing:

I hope that you are very gentle and kind when you speak with your friend.

I can assure you that many native speakers here in the United States also make the same mistake in writing.



James

 

[Rover_KE]

Pyae-sone-naing, you could not be blamed for being as rude to him as he was to you.

 

[Pyae-sone-naing]

Lots of thanks, everyone. I'm so glad to know that you are all very helpful and enthusiastic to answer the questions. I still have so many questions to come. I hope you will answer them in great patience. Thank you!

 

[MikeNewYork]

I just want to say that I would probably have chosen "is" instead of "was" before "your precious smile". That assumes the person still has it.