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They're: A contraction of two words: "they" and "are" ("They're done with the task").
Their: Possessive, it shows "they" own it or have a property ("Their task is done").
There: Where? There. It's a location, even in concept ("There was a task done").
These sentences are correct (#3 has some issues though), and have different meanings (aided by the use of commas): The word "is" is more often abused in speech than writing. It is used to mistakenly refer to multiple items, usually in a contraction form (e.g., "There's reasons to carpool"). It's done so often though, that it has become habit to some and accepted by others, and belongs on a page of common grammatical errors.
Is: refers to the being of one thing ("There is a bigger hope.")
Are: refers to the being of several things ("There are bigger hopes").
I've heard it said that colloquialism is the driving force behind the change in language. Perhaps so. But rather than necessity being the mother of all inventions, this is just a case of laziness or ignorance. The distinction between using "is" and "are" is basic. Is there some Aquarian Conspiracy to degrade English?
It's: A contraction of two words: "it" and "is" ("It's finished").
Its: Possessive, showing "it" owns something or has a property ("Its wheel came off").
The odd thing about this is, the possessive "its" pointedly doesn't use an apostrophe (see "Apostrophe (') or Not?", below). Perhaps to distinguish it from the contraction?
Two: this is an integer representing more than one and fewer than three. It's a pair ("I have two bosses").
Too: an excess, or in addition to (similar to "also") ("Too much food is bad, but sloth fattens us too").
To: shows direction or intention ("We're going to the grocery to buy food").
These sentences sound the same, are correct, and have different meanings (aided by the use of commas): Fewer: refers to a countable quantity of something in the plural ("There were fewer storms and fewer casualties").
Less: is used to describe a lower amount of a single thing ("The weather was less stormy and caused less damage").
Here are some examples of similar statements adapted to use "fewer" and "less":
Yet when doing math, we have statements like "Four is less than five". The statement refers to the concept of the numbers themselves. The statement more completely reads like "Four represents a lesser quantity than five does". Who wants to go through that, when you're really trying to learn about numbers in that case? To use fewer, you could say "Four apples are fewer than five apples."
Possessive: adding an apostrophe-S can create ownerhip ("A dog's collar was lost"). This could also be a contraction of "is" or "has" ("The dog's lost his collar").
Possessive and Plural: the apostrophe goes after the plural "S", and a second "S" is not added ("Most dogs' collars were lost"). I'm not sure about nouns, but for proper names ending in "S", a second "S" is not added ("Mr. Jones' dog's collar was lost").
Contractions: when two words are combined (usually a noun or pronoun and an abbreviated verb) into one word, an apostrophe is the glue between them ("We will go" = "We'll go").
Abbreviations: short forms of some words will use an apostrophe to show some letters are missing (international = Int'l, government = gov't, birthday = b'day).
When using plurals and possessives with acronyms, treat the acronym as if it is just another word.
Some Common Grammatical Errors
Here are a few common errors made mostly in writing by many folks, including professional journalists. So in the interest of self help, I offer these tips. This is not a comprehensive overview of the English language (duh). And no, I'm not claiming to be a great writer (as starting this sentence with a conjunction should prove).
Their, There, and They're
Is or Are
It's and Its
Two, Too and To
Fewer or Less
Apostrophe (') or Not?
They're, Their, and There "They're on their way there."
1) "It's their understanding": That's how they see it.
2) "It's there, understanding": It's in a fixed location, working it out.
3) "It's, they're understanding": The situation is, they are working it out.
Is or Are "The population is what the people are."
It's and Its "It's on its way."
Two, Too and To "Two are too much to handle"
Fewer or Less "Fewer gallons equate to less gas."
"There was less of a variety of gasses." = "There were fewer gasses."
"The car has less gas." = "The car had fewer gallons of gas."
"There was less of a crowd this year." = "There were fewer people this year."
"I had less money." = "I had fewer dollars."
"Ten items or fewer." I can't come up with an alternative. Most grocery stores simply have it wrong, using "less". Except for one in a St. Augustine Shores, FL Publix.
Apostrophe (') or Not? Pluralization: adding an "S" makes many nouns into plurals ("There was one dog, then more dogs"). No apostrophe. This includes acronyms ("The ABMs stopped all the ICBMs").