I am not bringing up the discussion on the frequent mix-up of these two, which I think has already been covered. Rather I am wondering whether anyone has devised/found a way to explain the difference between them to people who are not very knowledgeable in grammatical parlay, so that they will remember it (like a mnemonic device). My co-worker keeps getting them mixed up in printed public notices, though I have explained about possessives and verbs time and time again. He says he can't remember which is which and which is for what!

Any help out there?

just tell him to keep the apostrophe out of "his" possessive pronouns.

you / you're , so that they will remember it (like a mnemonic device).
-----------------------
If you're writing it you're, you are writing it right.
You're welcome.
Your pal,
wow

If you're doing it, do it with an apostrophe, but if you own it, your apostrophe is redundant.

Marianna, I'm glad you're here!

To take tsuwm's suggestion a bit further (his original post on the subject was a little more detailed than this one),
what about something along the lines of: What is yours,
isn't ours. (Leaving 'you're' to the process of elimination.)

If you can replace it with "you are" then it's "you're"

If you can replace it with "you are" then it's "you're"

Exactly. And I could have sworn I posted something to a similar effect yesterday, but apparently the AWAD server sprites found that message a very tasty treat ~ Something to the effect that once someone pointed out the obvious to me, I've never forgotten it since!

Just as FB said----If you can replace it with "you are" then it is You're and if it belongs to you---it is yours. (your car, your house, your dog etc---but on the other hand----"you're going to the car, you're going to the house, you're feeding the dog, etc"

enthusiast