Grammar mistakes that make you squirm
Hello, my dears!
As a writer, I've always struggled - as any other
writer, professional or amateur, I suppose - with the Do's and
Dont's of writing. Whether it's grammar, sentence structure, plot,
we're all guilty of something that really embarrasses us - I know I do.
Some examples are simple grammar typos. I've struggled
with some myself; I find myself so confident of my finished manuscript, and
when I do proofreading and re-editing, I find more and more mistakes that make
me want to slap myself - sometimes I do. Here are some examples of some of
grammar crimes I find disturbing.
Their / They're /
There
Wrong: I've been their
myself
Correct: I've been THERE
myself
Wrong: They're house is
beautiful
Correct: THEIR house is
beautiful
Wrong: Their such nice
people
Correct: THEY'RE such
nice people
Doesn't it just make you squirm?! Every time I read
these mistakes, whether on an online platform of stories sharing, or on an
actual published book, it makes me go 'No, no, no, no, no!
Their: Possessive
pronoun, indicates ownership of something - their house; their car; their
children, etc.
They're: short form of 'They are', it's made from the personal pronoun 'They' and
the third person of the verb 'To Be', 'Are'. As it should be expected, it
indicates, not possession, but the person - or, in this case, a collective of
more than one person.
There: adverb,
indicating a place or position
Oh the humanity!
Your / You're
Another squirm. It's normal to get mixed up sometimes,
and I've been guilty of some really bad 'squirm makers' myself.
Wrong: Your beautiful
Correct: YOU'RE beautiful
Wrong: You're dog is
great
Correct: YOUR dog is
great
This one, is just, again, a classical mixup about what
a personal and a possessive pronoun really are.
Your: Possessive
pronoun, indicates ownership of something - your house; your car; your
children, etc.
You're: short form of 'You Are'; composed by the personal pronoun 'You',
indicating, again, the person, and the second person of the verb 'To Be',
'Are'.
Me / I
I confess, this one gets me confused many times. I
often find myself - no pun intended, actually - going on Google to learn it
once again.
I was doing research on this particular pain in the
butt, and the best explanation for me was one saying you should remove the
other person from the sentence, and see if it still makes sense. Sounds easy
enough; of course, sometimes you can't get it right as easily as that.
For me, what helps the most is to actually google part
of the sentence I want to write, and see what comes up.
Example: Give Julia and I a coffee not take the 1st person
Give I a coffee
Doesn't sound right, don't you think? But:
Give Julia and ME a coffee take 1st person
Give me a coffee
Now, that's much better, don't you think?
The Apostrophe
Easily explained, an apostrophe demonstrates
possession for NOUNS - see that nouns is in capitals for a reason. When you use
it for pronouns that's a big no no!
Wrong example: Your's, Their's, Whose's etc.
Correct example: Sophie's dog, the dog's toy, the toy's place, etc.
Two very tricky ones are the IT'S and
the ITS.
It's: short form of
'It Is', indicating not a plural, but possession; It's his job; it's his car,
etc.
Its: the possessive
form of 'It'; it's used when the subject of the sentence is a thing or an
animal; my mobile has its own case; the house has its own back yard.
Honourable mention
There are many other troublemakers out there, but this
one is my personal favourite:
Compliment / Complement
For me, these two words really get on my nerves, and
don't ask me why.
Compliment: when someone says something nice about
you, for example 'I really like your shirt'; they are giving you a
COMPLIMENT
Complement: meaning, two things go well together, for
example, Tom Cruise to Renée Zellweger on Jerry Maguire 'You
complete me'. So Jerry and what's-her-name COMPLEMENT each other.
Get your grammar straight before you hit the 'Upload'
or 'Send' button on your website/email, to avoid some of these incredibly
embarrassing situations - believe you me, it will save you many crying nights.
Happy Readings,
Sophie
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