These are three words that are pronounced the same way (or very nearly so), but the spelling is different and so is the meaning. However, many people get them confused.
“There” is an adverb that is used to indicate a place where something is, as in “I put it over there.” However, it can also be used as a pronoun, as in “There is a house in New Orleans”, where the speaker is not so much pointing to the house as saying that the house exists and then telling you where it is.
“Their” is a possessive pronoun, in the same league as “his”, “her” and “its”. In common usage it can be used for both singular and plural owners, so that it is quite acceptable to say “The average person prefers their coffee to be hot”, whereas to be strictly accurate it should be “his or her cofffee”.
“They’re” can only mean “they are”, as in “they’re coming to stay for a week”. Remember that an apostrophe means that something is missing, in this case a space and the letter “a”.
Remembering when to use “there” and “their” is not quite so easy, unless you bear in mind that “there” goes with “where” and “here”. Just remember the question, ”where shall I put it, here or there?” You would never write “wheir” or “heir”, so you would not write “their” in this circumstance either!
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