A Growing Problem on Social Media: Improperly Using “Here’s”

Here’s a pet peeve of mine: people improperly using “here’s” on social media and websites. Here’s the issue: “here’s” is a contraction of the words “here” and “is.” “Here is” and “here’s” should only be used for a singular subject, such as “here’s my dog” or “here’s that taco you wanted.” However, I keep seeing Tweets, Facebook updates and blog posts in which people use “here’s” with a plural. “here’s” and “here are” are not interchangeable. The mistake is so common that even people show should know better, such as journalists, are posting and Tweeting “here’s” when they should use “here are.”

 

Just this morning, I read a tweet that started “here’s six things…” No! Proper grammar dictates that sentence should read “here are six things…” because the tweet was about multiple things. This is a basic grammatical rule. Plural = “here are.” Singular = “here is” or “here’s.”

 

Now I know many of you are thinking about the limited character count in Tweets that might make typing “here are” difficult. Guess what? You probably could just eliminate the phrase entirely and save yourself seven letters and a space. If we use the sentence “here are six things to help you sleep better,” you could easily write “six things to help you sleep better” without changing the meaning of your Tweet. This not only saves you space in your 140 character count, it also tightens up your writing and gets to the point two words faster.

 

In short, use “here’s” when you are talking about a singular subject matter. Expand to “here are” for multiples. It will make your posts look more professional and help seal your status as an authority in your field.