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to Avoid Them
1. Misplaced apostrophes
Apostrophes arent difficult to use once you know how, but
putting them in the wrong place is one of the most common
grammar mistakes in the English language. Many people use
an apostrophe to form the plural of a word, particularly if the
word in question ends in a vowel, which might make the word
look strange with an S added to make it plural.
The rules:
Apostrophes indicate possession something
How to do it properly:
The horses are in the field
Pens for sale
In the 1980s
We didnt want to do it
Janes horse is over there
The girls dresses are ready for them to collect
How to do it properly:
Youre beautiful
Do you know when youre coming over?
Can I have one of your biscuits?
3. Its/its
We said earlier that apostrophes should be used to indicate
possession, but there is one exception to this rule, and that is
the word it. Unsurprisingly, this exception gets lots of
people confused.
The rules:
Its is only ever used when short for it is.
Its indicates something belonging to something that
How to do it properly:
Its snowing outside
The sofa looks great with its new cover
4. Could/would/should of
This common mistake arises because the contracted form of
could have couldve sounds a bit like could of when
you say it out loud. This mistake is made frequently across all
three of these words.
The rules:
When people write should of, what they really
is shouldve.
Shouldve and Should have are both correct; the
2. Your/youre
How to do it properly:
The rules:
Amount refers to a commodity, which cant be
The rules:
Use there to refer to a place that isnt here over
there.
How to do it properly:
A greater number of people are eating more healthily
The rain dumped a larger amount of water on the
5. There/their/theyre
Weve met this one before, too; its another example of those
pesky homophones words that sound the same but have
different meanings.
no cakes left.
Their indicates possession something belonging
to them.
How to do it properly:
Theyre going to be here soon
We should contact their agent
Can we use their boat?
There is an argument that says
6. Fewer/less
The fact that many people dont know the difference between
fewer and less is reflected in the number of supermarket
checkout aisles designated for 10 items or less. The mistake
most people make is using less when they actually mean
fewer, rather than the other way round.
The rules:
Fewer refers to items you can count individually.
Less refers to a commodity, such as sand or water,
How to do it properly:
There are fewer cakes now
Ten items or fewer
Less sand
Fewer grains of sand
7. Amount/number
The rules:
To is used in the infinitive form of a verb to
talk.
How to do it properly:
Im too hot
Its time to go
Im going to town
He bought two cakes
9. Then/than
Confusion between then and than probably arises because
the two look and sound similar.
The rules:
Than is used in comparisons.
Then is used to indicate something following
something else in time, as in step-by-step instructions, or
planning a schedule (well go there then there).
How to do it properly:
She was better at it than him
It was more than enough
Well go to the baker first, then the coffee shop
The rules:
When referring to yourself and someone else, put
How to do it properly:
John and I are off to the circus
John and I are going into town
Give it to John and me to look after
Ill deal with it myself
I thought to myself
The rules:
Who refers to the subject of a sentence; whom
How to do it properly:
Whom shall I invite?
Who is responsible?
He was the only person who wanted to come
13. Affect/effect
Its an easy enough mistake to make given how similar these
two words look and sound, but theres a simple explanation to
help you remember the difference.
11. Invite/invitation
This mistake is now so common that its almost accepted as an
alternative, but if you really want to speak English properly,
you should avoid it.
The rules:
Invite is a verb to invite. It refers to asking
How to do it properly:
I havent responded to her invitation yet.
She sent me an invitation.
Im going to invite her to join us.
12. Who/whom
10. Me/myself/I
The matter of how to refer to oneself causes all manner of
conundrums, particularly when referring to another person in
the same sentence. Heres how to remember whether to use
me, myself or I.
The rules:
Affect is a verb to affect meaning to influence
How to do it properly:
He waited for the medicine to have an effect
They were directly affected by the flooding
The rules:
I.e. means that is or in other words. It comes
accepting them.
How to do it properly:
He liked many different cheeses, e.g. cheddar,
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