I realize people like to spell things with a mind to correctness, because having standards (or things near enough to standards) helps communication. However, one of the things I hear often is that things like they're/their/there need to be spelled correctly because otherwise it changes the meaning of sentences. There may be a couple rare cases where you can insert one of these items into the place of another and change the meaning, but they seem to be fairly seldom.

One of the points I like to press often, when people say that spelling things wrong makes the writer seem stupid, is that readers are more flexible than we seem to expect. One of the hallmarks of a functional literate person is being able to interpret written language through spelling errors, typos, or bad typesetting, or even when sentences have been cut and respelled severely to fit within the constraints of an SMS. Might an inability to interpret variation be just as big a problem as an inability (or lack of desire) to spell "properly"?

To illustrate the point with these words, following are 15 sentences. I've replaced all instances of they're, their and there with ðer, since in my dialect these are all the same. If I (and others like me) manage to understand eachother in speech, we obviously should be able to understand eachother in writing with these forms spelled the same.

The sentences are randomly selected from COCA. As there are fifteen, you should find at least 5 of each of the three forms, though some sentences have several. The idea was to collect at least 5 search results containing each of the separate forms. Some are fragments, and some are full sentences, and some have been trimmed to remove things that were generally tough to read. The hope with sentence fragments is that it will illustrate even more clearly that we can still succeed to understand even in compromised situations.

Enjoy!

... many people will still order a cheeseburger, soda and fries, ðer going to focus on that as well, Heidi, really important ...

... the professional services and social interaction that come with cubicle life, ðer crying out for support, not to mention a little chitchat.

... ... which could make them feel ashamed of ðer bodies. But I'm not sure what would be helpful to say or do ...

Real kids don't dress like bankers and fly around in ðer daddy's private jet.

ðer not the only people borrowing. ðer's a stimulus plan in Europe. ðer's a stimulus plan in China.

O'REILLY: Right. ðer going to take from the Social Security fund- ...

(Voiceover) Pruitt Rainey never saw the home gym his dad built for him just below ðer poker room. But his dad kept the promise he made to his son in ...

... a fashionable spa, and maybe even the occasional trip to Niagara, but ðer would certainly have been no Atlantic crossing and most certainly none of the sophisticated social ...

... and he would ask them about school and do his best to stay interested in ðer long-winded, half-baked descriptions. They were lucky when it came to ðer kids,

... although the last two days have been a couple good days. ðer's a sense out ðer that...

... Brooklyn, Detroit and London don't have to share the microphone here with ðer male counterparts. Nor does Peled upstage her subjects. She only adds a few ...

... my God! ðer going to show my hips, ðer going to...' And we brought three examples along to show. The one ...

... moderate jolt. Then ðer's a bit of a sway once you're hanging ðer. When you're actually on the water, ðer's a firmness that did ...

... ain't true. Remember I told you that. ðer only stories. ðer was more: fruits that we don't have no more because they came from

... who is coming for her very first reunion, just as Dorothy is. Though ðer the similarity ends, thank you very much.