Avoid Common Usage and Grammar Mistakes

Are people always nagging you about your improper grammar? Are the Grammar Nazis hunting you down? With this nifty guide, you will be able to improve your English language skills with ease.

Steps

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Doc:Grammar Exercises,Common Grammar Mistakes

Avoiding Common Mistakes

  1. Observe the way you write and speak. Speaking improperly is one thing; writing improperly, however, is a red flag. You can see how terrible your grammar is by simply writing an essay. The next time you have to write an essay for school or work, take a moment to look over your sentences and structure. If you can pick out a few pieces of improper writing, you're already half-way there.
  2. Learn the differences between the following:
    • I vs Me. When trying to figure out which to use, remember who or what the subject is. For example, "I" would be the subject in the following sentence:
      • "Sofia and I are eating tacos for dinner tonight." ("I" is the subject because if you remove "Sofia and" and replace "are" with "am", you'll see that the sentence will still make sense.) "I am eating tacos for dinner tonight."
      • "Me" would be the subject in the following sentence: "Would you like to have dinner with Sofia and me?" (Still not convinced? Remove "Sofia and" from that sentence and re-read it.) "Would you like to have dinner with me?"
    • Your vs You're. Your is used as a possessive. You're is the contraction of "you are".
      • "Your acne has really cleared up!"
      • "Thanks! You're the first person to notice."
    • There vs Their vs They're. There is used as a direction. Their is used as a possessive. They're is a contraction of "they are".
      • "Bye, Mom. I'm going to the movies with Danny and Logan. They're going to meet me at the front."
      • "Do you know how to get there by yourself in case they're late?"
      • "Yeah. Their sister showed me how to get there from here."
      • "They're going there with their sister too?"
      • "No, it's just the three of us."
    • It's vs Its. It's is a contraction of "it is" and "it has". Its is used as a possessive.
      • "Look, Nate! A frog! It's hiding behind the leaves."
      • "Wow, its eyes are huge!"
    • Using Apostrophes. A lot of people toss in apostrophes where they shouldn't be, like in plural nouns. Use apostrophes in contractions such as "you're", "it's", and "there's". Apostrophes are also used to show possession like in "Mark's" and "Dr. Science's". Also, when showing possession, remember this rule of thumb: if one person or thing owns something, the apostrophe goes before the "s". If more than one person or thing owns something, the apostrophe goes after the "s".
      • "The girls' dog likes to bark a lot."
      • "Hobart's dog likes to bite a lot."
      • A good exception to note: Children is already plural, so for possession, you add the apostrophe before the s, even though there is more than one individual; you'd say "children's dog."
    • Then vs Than. Then is used to show direction. Than is used as a comparison.
      • "I walked out of my house and then locked the door."
      • "I would rather lock my door than have someone break in while I'm gone."
    • Affect vs Effect. This one is simple to remember; affect means to influence and effect means to cause.
      • "The disastrous hurricane affected many people."
      • "The overall effect was that homes and businesses were destroyed."
    • Good vs Well. When describing a noun, use the word "good". When describing how something is done, use "well".
      • "Have you been good to your little sister today, Tommy?"
      • "Yeah, she still doesn't feel well."
    • To vs Too. To is used to state a direction. Too is used as "also."
      • "I just got invited to Keith's pool party."
      • "Wow, me too!"
  3. Fun with Plurals. Remember the old adage: When a word ends in "y", drop the "y" and add "ies" to make it plural. If it ends in a vowel, add an "s". Add "es" when the last two letters of a word are consonants.
    • Taco -----> Tacos
    • Branch -----> Branches
    • Movie -----> Movies
    • Baby -----> Babies
  4. Subject Agreement. If you get in the habit of re-reading your sentences, this should never be a problem. The subject of the sentence (the part that the sentence is about) should always match the pronoun (he, she, etc.).
    • "Who forgot his or her lunch in the cubby?" (Who is the subject of this sentence.) The common mistake people would make is, "Who forgot their lunch..." or even worse, "Who forgot there lunch...". My goodness... the tingles are crawling up my back already.
  5. "Quotation Marks" and __Underlining__. Remember this rule of thumb: short pieces of work get quotation marks, such as poems, song titles, and short stories. Longer pieces of work, such as book titles, movies, and epic poems should be underlined.
    • "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost
    • "My Girl" by The Temptations
    • __Of Mice and Men__ by John Steinbeck
    • __Back to the Future__, the movie
  6. Commas and Semicolons. Commas and semicolons are the most misused parts of grammar known. It helps to know how exactly they are used.
    • Incorrect: I love pumpkin pie, it's my favorite dessert.
    • Correct: I love pumpkin pie; it's my favorite dessert.
    • Incorrect: There are so many things I'd like to see, and so many things, I want to do in the city.
    • Correct: There are so many things I'd like to see, as well as do, in the city.
    • (Commas are often used as another form of parenthesis (). By using a set of commas like in the correct sentence above, you can avoid a run-on sentence. To make sure you're using this trick correctly, remove the phrase in between the two commas, remove the commas, and read the sentence to make sure it makes sense. In this case, you would get, "There are so many things I'd like to see in the city.")
    • This thing right here ; is called a semicolon. You may recognize it as the winky-eyes. A semicolon is used to separate two independent clauses. An independent clause is a statement that can stand alone.
    • "This party sucks; I don't know anyone here and the music is bogus."
    • An incorrect way to use a semicolon is to use it like a comma: "If you think this party sucks; maybe you should just leave."
  7. Capitalization. This is one of the simplest, and yet most common, mistakes people make. Proper nouns such as holidays, days of the week, places, and names get capitalization.
    • "Thomas Edison invented the phonograph."
    • "The Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776."
    • "Ruby Tuesday's is located on Pine Street in Fake City."
    • Improper capitalization can also lead to some really bizarre sentences:
    • Correct: "Can you help your friend Jack off the horse?"
    • Incorrect: "Can you help your friend jack---" (Well, you see where that one is going. Though this is an extreme example, it could happen very easily!)
  8. The Dangling Participle. This rule is a little hard to catch if you're not a grammar whiz but if you read certain sentences carefully, you might be able to pick up on them.
    • "After meowing constantly for hours, I finally let my cat inside." (Why were you meowing constantly for hours?) The opening phrase should always modify what immediately follows.
    • Instead, the sentence should read, "After my cat was meowing constantly for hours, I finally let him inside."

Tips

  • You can also use websites dedicated to helping people with their grammar.
  • Using grammar properly is important, mainly because if you want to go for a job interview and the interviewer can't read or understand what you wrote on your resume, you're not going to be hired.
  • No one's grammar is perfect.
  • Ask your English teacher or a grammar-whiz friend to check your grammar.
  • If you're still confused with grammar and how to use it properly, there are many books you can check out at your local library on the subject.

Warnings

  • By using grammar improperly in a sentence, what you mean could mean something completely different to how it's read.

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