There are some basic grammar mistakes almost everyone ...
EXTRA CREDIT: “GRAMMAR POLICE”
There are some basic grammar mistakes that almost everyone makes. If you can learn to recognize errors and get these right, you're off to a good start. Try finding these mistakes (and others) in everyday life. You can also look for misspellings, homonym mix-ups (i.e. roll vs. role), word mix-ups (dessert vs. desert), and things like that.
When you notice these mistakes (they are EVERYWHERE!) snap a pic with your phone or capture a screenshot on your computer.
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Here are a few of the most common errors. Feel free to send others, too!
1. Affect vs. effect. The easiest way to remember the difference between the two is that "affect" means "to influence" – therefore, this is an action. When you use affect as an action think letter “A.” When you use effect meaning “end result” think letter “E.”
e.g. She was affected by the tornado.
The tornado had a disastrous effect on her town.
2. Impact. Impact is a noun, not a verb. A plane can crash on impact. You can have an impact on something. But you cannot impact something. (When you are tempted to use "impact" as a verb, use "affect" instead; see #1.)
3. Their, they're and there. You'd think everyone would have learned this rule in fourth grade, but it's a very common mistake. Use "there" when referring to a location, "their" to indicate possession, and "they're" when you mean to say "they are."
4. Care less. The dismissive "I could care less" is incorrect. If you could care less about it, then you're saying you could care less about the topic, and you've lost the impact you meant to have. To use this phrase correctly, insert the word "not" after the word "could," as in, "I could not care less."
5. Irregardless. This word doesn't exist. The word you should use is "regardless."
6. Your and you're. Another mistake you'll often see on Facebook posts and other social media is the incorrect use of "your" and "you're." If you mean to say, "you are," the correct word is "you're." Use "your" when referring to something that belongs to "you," as in "your business.”
e.g. I know you’re aggravated and I promise to stay out of your business.
7. Fewer vs. less. Another common mistake, "less" refers to quantity and "fewer" to a specific number. For instance:
E.g. Facebook has fewer than 5,000 employees.
I got less sleep than you did last night.
8. Quotation marks. People are always confused about whether or not punctuation belongs inside or outside of quotation marks. Let's set the record straight. The period and the comma always go inside quotation marks. The dash, the semicolon, the exclamation mark and the question mark go inside when they apply to the quoted matter, but outside when they apply to the whole sentence.
E.g. In the 1986 movie Aliens, did Sigourney Weaver really say, “Get away from her, you bitch!”?
(See clip: )
9. Possessive (‘s) versus Plural (s). A lot of people get confused about apostrophes and what they’re all about. Here’s the deal: Apostrophes typically shows POSSESSION (Tom’s coat/ the cat’s fur/the pig’s slop) or they TAKE THE PLACE OF MISSING LETTER(s) in a contraction (can’t (cannot)/ won’t (will not)/ hasn’t (has not).)
NOTE: Possessive pronouns are already possessive (his, hers, its, theirs...). They NEVER need apostrophes.
When referring to possession for a thing, always use the word “its.” (NO APOSTROPHE!)
e.g. The cat lost its claws. The cardinal found its nest. My car lost its shine.
Likewise, the words “hers” and “theirs” are actual words that are already possessive —they don’t need apostrophes.
WRONG: That is her’s. CORRECT: That is hers.
WRONG: They think everything is their’s. CORRECT: They think everything is theirs.
It’s = It is.
(It’s raining today. It’s a cold day in hell. It’s a shame Ben Affleck is going to be Batman. )
PLURAL WORDS --- This is an easy rule: NEVER EVER MAKE A PLURAL USING AN APOSTROPHE. NEVER EVER.
WRONG: The grape’s are in the bowl. CORRECT: The grapes are in the bowl.
Need a “cheat sheet” for grammar and usage rules? Get the tiny paperback, The Elements of Style, by Wiilliam Strunk and E.B. White. It has easy-to-follow examples of every grammar/usage rule that exists.
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