Select the most appropriate homophone to fill in the blank. Macaw birds have…

Concept

Homophones sound alike but differ in spelling and meaning. Their grammatical roles determine which spelling belongs in a sentence.

A possessive determiner appears before a noun to link that noun to its possessor; a contraction and an adverb perform different grammatical jobs.

Application

In “Macaw birds have many colours in ______ feathers,” the blank comes immediately before the noun “feathers” and refers back to the plural possessor “Macaw birds.” The slot therefore requires a possessive determiner.

Contrast

• “they’re” contracts “they are”; expanding it gives “in they are feathers,” which cannot modify the noun.

• “there” is a locative or existential adverb, as in “over there” or “there is,” so it does not mark possession.

• “their” is the possessive determiner used with a plural or gender-neutral antecedent and can modify “feathers.”

• “thier” transposes the internal vowels of “their” and is not a standard English spelling.

Cross-check

Substitution gives “Macaw birds have many colours in their feathers.” The pronoun reference, possession, and noun phrase are all grammatical, so the required word is “their.”