Do You Make These 7 Mistakes
When You Write?

Good reminders, though I have to say “Give Chris and I a call” still sounds okay to me.

One peeve of mine, used more in speech than in writing, is things like “Get off of me” or “I did do it” instead of “Get off me” or “I did it”

Great post! I actually went back to a certain post of mine where I mentioned the word “myself” instead of “me” (which I realize is more appropriate).

Good post.

I especially like the Parallelism point. I have always been in doubt whether to put a verb or not in each part. Now I know for sure. Thanks.

The difference between less and fewer is one too. The “ten items or less” at the supermarket also bothers me.

Brain, I copied and pasted number three for my future reference. Yes I try to write in my own style but I like it to make sense.

Adam, that’s the trouble with the “internet mentality”–that it’s ok to degrade our communication skills because it’s faster that way. Honestly, more trouble is taken to clear up misunderstandings that occur due to poor grammar/punctuation than is saved by shortcutting (read “sloppy writing”).

When I received the article in a gmail message, the subject matter looked promising until I read the first line of the article which offered a catastrophic butchered display of the apostrophe which read “It’s time”

What a shame that the spirit of the article itself felt hollow to me when the rest of the text suffered from similar periodic spasms of unintended corrupted character display.

Am I the only one to view the contents like this?

Has anyone pondered et cetera lately? I see etc. and ect. a lot and then too, some people overuse it in their content. I tell my clients that if one must etc., etc., etc., too much then they must not have anything better to say.

Also, I wonder why so many gurus think their work is so fine they don’t need an editor. There are several gurus whose products are great, but the obvious errors really bothers me when I see it.

@Mike on “then vs. than”
You beat me to it. I know I see this at least once per day. I actually saw it today on Seth Godin’s blog of all places (and it’s only 5:30 in the morning). I know his was a mistake though, because he used it correctly in the very next sentence.

@Scott on “I couldn’t care less”
Awesome. Can you make an entire website about this so we can change the world? I get so sick of this that I’ve just stopped trying to have the discussion that would correct people anymore.

Now for my favorite from the Department of Redundancy Department.

“Each day I get up at 5:30 a.m. in the morning.”

As opposed to 5:30 a.m. in the afternoon?

Hooray for proper grammar!

It’s not until I publish my entries, read over them again, until I realise my mistake. It’s somewhat annoying and embarrassing. It makes you appear horribly amateur.

I totally agree with the style differences between academia and the blogosphere. That conversational, accessible tone is a big reason that people read blogs, I think. I just posted about it, actually, using copyblogger as an example over at http://www.gringoblogger.com.

From Adam: “The mobiles and internet have made every possible shortcut to type in with as little strokes as possible.” Oops. This was a joke, right?

Good post, Brian, but I think the main point could be emphasised a little more. The tone should be conversational, informal, and friendly, as you said. (Hope the comma Nazis don’t get me for that sentence).

What I do is read what I’m writing. Yes, this is something we all do, right, but how many people actually read it to themselves? Try reading it out loud (if no one’s in earshot), pausing at the commas, using the words you have written. It’s amazing how many clumsy sentence constructions can pop out like the proverbial sore wotsit when you do that.

Not to mention plural/singular disagreements. Oops!

This is a great post! I defininitely fall into those slackers who mis-use i.e. and e.g. Never again after tagging this!

And, what about clarifying my biggest pet peeve…”can not”. But I was recently told that “cannot” and “can not” are both okay; it just depends on the context. Can this possibly be true?

The problem sometimes is with people who are native English speakers. In my case, I think I can good enough use the grammar but, still have a lot to work.
Yes, the problem with should, could, would, is a common one.
Bloggers need to be taught and this is a good start
A.

I hope these English usage tips are being read far and wide, particularly by folks in business.

I’ve always considered my public posts – whether on websites, blogs, forums, ezines or printed materials – to be my virtual salespeople.

They represent me and my company in the public eye.

To be clear Brian my setup is xp, ffox (with all sort of language add-ons), locale set to en-gb, reading with gmail, albeit on a Spanish os laptop, based in Spain, receiving your article via feedblitz. Very difficult to diagnose why the apostrophes do not render as intended. My peeves about language on and off the web, more so in cultures that are vulnerable from the onslaught of English are typically related to poor translation/localisation.

For apostrophes, I still use the rule handed down to me by my 7th-grade English teacher. No. 2 actually contradicts the AP Style Guide, but it’s far simpler:

1. Contractions: Apostrophe replaces the missing letter or letters.
2. Possessives: If a word ends in “s”, the apostrophe goes at the end of the word, whether or not it’s singular or plural (”the boys’ baseball bat,” “my boss’ desk.”) If it doesn’t end in “s”, then put an apostrophe followed by an “s”. However, possessive pronouns (its, his, hers, ours and yours) do not take an apostrophe.

That’s it. Don’t use it for plurals (although I make an exception to this rule for one-letter plurals — “She got all A’s on her report card,” “mind your p’s and q’s — since it would otherwise look like “As” or “ps”). But I agree that people are generally better off using fewer apostrophe’s — err, apostrophes.

In a list like this I’d include the common misuse of adjectives in place of adverbs, as in “he played good”, “eat healthy”, “think different”. It’s very common in the US, though less so in the rest of the English speaking world.

Could you also note that definitely is never spelled with an “a” and that a point can be moot but never mute?

Also, I noticed the character rendering issue mentioned above and thought I might be able to help. You should easily have been able to avoid this issue by shutting off curly quotes and other non-ASCII characters in MSWord or whatever program you use to write this. That’s the usual culprit there – hope that info helps. If it doesn’t – well, then, it’s not so easy is it?

Another one you could add to this last that always drives me crazy is using ‘your’ vs. ‘you’re’. That one has driven me crazy since high school and I still see people doing it wrong all the time!!!

The use of over instead of more than is another common error. I was just discussing this with a friend last night regarding a blog post that contained the phrase:

…contains more than 1,500 books…

That is correct, but it is not uncommon to see something like:

…contains over 1,500 books…

Over implies position, not quantity. What is it doing, hovering?

By the way, if you enjoy grammar, the book Eats, Shoots & Leaves is humorous and educational at the same time.

Good points all, but I wish you would add one more example of a misused apostrophe: “it’s” when one means to say “its”. This error is so frequent, it’s almost worth its own entry.

Regarding #5:

Original
“Over the weekend, Kevin bought a new MacBook Pro online, two software programs, and arranged for free shipping.”

Your suggestion:
*Add “ordered” in front of “two software programs”

Another option, which requires adding zero words:
*Move “online” to immediately after “bought”

“Over the weekend, Kevin bought online a new MacBook Pro, two software programs, and arranged for free shipping.”

Anytime you can fix a problem without adding words, in my opinion that’s a good thing.

The key to understanding why “Give Chris and I a call” is incorrect to know about subjects, objects, and indirect objects. Subjects *do* the action to an object, and indirect objects “benefit” from it or are otherwise related.

Way back when, English speakers showed whether a noun was a subject, object, etc. by adding suffixes to the end of the noun. This is called *inflection*. That way, the words could come in any order and the sentence would make sence. However, English speakers started to almost always use the “Subject – Verb – Indirect Object – Object” form, so they began to drop those endings.

But pronouns, like “I,” “you,” and the like still retain some historic inflection. That’s why we say “give him a call” instead of “give he a call.” Likewise, even though there is an “and,” the correct sentence is “Give Chris and me a call.” In that sentence, “Chris” and “me” are the indirect objects, and “call” is the direct object.

Hope this clears things up a bit.

Gerald, it’s not really just a matter of “being annoyed.” Remember that a large part of Copyblogger’s content is dedicated to business, sales, and marketing blogging.

In other words, if you blog just for fun, it may not matter to annoy people with errors. Sure, the message will still be clear enough.

However, if you want to sell somet

hing to someone, their perception of you is very important. Thus, annoying mistakes may mean lost sales.

Brian. I’d like to see the confusion over when the apostrophe goes after the “s” in one of these. People assume it always goes after when the name ends with “s,” but it actually depends on whether it’s plural possessive or singular possessive.

Oh, yeah. And what about “weather” vs. “whether.” Sorry if someone mentioned that. I only had time to skim the comments.

cool article

Wonderful post. I see these mistakes so many times, especially the loose/lose and the “could of” ones, that I really want to tear someone’s hair out (and I don’t mean mine).

And there is a phrase that’s spoken more than written, but I still see it, and it kills me every time:

“I could care less” instead of “I couldn’t care less.” No one seems to realize if they “could care less” then they actually do care about the current subject.

I’m rolling my eyes just writing about it.

In any case, love the blog. Your work is invaluable, and I only wish more people would read you.

These may be the most common linguistic uses to you, but grammatical use changes with location, region, and cultural setting. No one of these dialects is more “correct” then the others. All language is simply the conveying of information, and many dialects that don’t follow these rules have their own sets of grammar, considered ‘correct’ in their social context.

There is no sociolinguistic basis to the idea that one language or dialect is in any way better or more correct than another.

One that I am noticing more and more lately and is showing up in major newspapers and television:

“till”

…which is what you do to the garden, or maybe where you put the money (under the cash register). But I see it everywhere, as in:

“We weren’t going to start till Ed and Laura arrived.”

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

That should be:

“We weren’t going to start ’til Ed and Laura arrived.”

(being the shortened version of ‘Until’, of course).

My .02¢

PS: OK, that might have been too subtle. “My two cents worth” is either:

“… my $.02…” or “…my 2¢…”, by saying “…my .02¢…” was an uppercut to the Grammer Nazis. Plus I enjoy using ‘¢’ and having people go “Umm, where exactly is that key on my keyboard?”

LOL

There are more ways of using ‘different’ than you think.

Good post and great reminders.

I’m constantly tempted to correct the spelling of the blog comments I agree with to save their credibility… but resist it. I think I’ll email them a link to this list… especially “loose” instead of “lose.” What’s up with that?

How about a post on commas and periods going INSIDE the quotation marks. Just please don’t critique my blog for flagrant overuse of ellipses and so much more.

umm, i dont know if any other comments commented on this. I am just too lazy to read all of them. But I noticed there was no mention of these words: there, their & they’re. The most annoying misuses i have ever seen, and also the most prevalent.

strangely, me never make them mistakes :p

I’m surprised you didn’t mention “ending the sentence with a prepositional phrase.” That’s probably the most-used grammatical error.

I’m not sure if anyone’s mentioned it yet, but use of the apostrophe in the words “its” and “it’s” is always a little strange. I thought that maybe you’d like to add it.

It’s

Awesome tip, Isaac! Never heard it that way. However, I still avoid acronyms in writing like the plague.

kinghajj and Brian,

Just wondering in this case how the following would work.

“Chris and I went to the store”

vs

“Chris and me went to the store”

With the example of taking out the other person, I can say that “me went to the store” sound entirely incorrect. I am also assuming that in this case “the store” is the indirect object, as the focus of the sentence is “Chris and I”, unlike Brian’s example where the “call” is the object being given.

Also, before crucifying me for my terrible grammar, I already admit it’s horrible — which is why I am reading sites like this, in a feeble attempt to improve my writing skills.

I know I have previously made many of those mistakes. However these days I know most of those rules (although #3 and #5 I need to work on) as well as the ones from your previous post. What I really need to do is learn the proper use of the punctuation marks, as I am still rather confused by semicolons, and EM dashes.

I knew I should have paid more attention in school.

Great article, I have committed everyone of those offenses at one point or another.

I also agree that is permissible break the rules in “conversational writing” such as blogs to interact with the reader.

My printer is already running and this post will be on my wall!!!

Wow, I could see these exchanges going on for ever (or is that forever?)

It’s good to learn the rules – and then know when you can break them – but blogging and commenting happen fast, which means mistakes can creep in. There’s no point getting too hung up about it – so long as the meaning is clear.

In the spirit of the game though – anyone spot the mistake in comment #82?

Joanna

One sentence paragraphs have their purpose regardless of what some people may think. Exactly how?

By emphasizing a point, that’s how!

Some great tips, I don’t think I find myself abusing any of these.

Not sure how I feel about the “I” vs. “me” thing. Saying “give Chris and me a call” may be proper, but it just doesn’t sound right, whereas “give Chris and I a call” does.

Written language is a craft. Some are better at it than others, and some are more popular than others, and sometimes those two categories cross.

In all, nice post. Most of the errors you point out make my eyes burn when I read them. Particularly when I am the one that makes them.

My writing is getting worse day by day… thanks for the tips

Sorry…

I evidently misread your post. I only saw the sentence with the common barbarism “if Billy would have done his job” and mistook this for your example of how to structure the sentence, overlooking the correct sentence below.

If anything, it shows that the error is so common, I assumed you got it wrong too, but you did indeed get it right.

On the “I” versus “me” (also “us” and “we”) question, the problem for modern English speakers is that the language long ago lost almost all its case markers. The personal pronouns are the last holdouts, so we’re not as accustomed to thinking in terms of the case of a noun as speaker of other languages, such as German.

@ Bill B:

I agree. “Got” is overused and misused constantly. It seems to be a fad of this generation, like saying, “I got food. I be good.”

-Shiver-

This Dutch lad here thanks YOU (read: Brian) a lot for your tips! U gotto love ‘em!

P.s. just teasin ya a bit with my silly slang.

Was anyone under the age of 50 ever taught that “lose” is a verb that means to misplace something and is pronounced as though it was spelled “looze”? And that “loose” is an adjective that basically means “not rigid or tight, and when spoken has a sibilant”s”. I’m 84 and when my generation learned to read, they learned pronunciation, too and would never have confused those two words!

Wow, just found your site and it looks really interesting. Although I mainly write in Swedish, I’m also very interested in English writing. I’m looking forward to reading all the old posts. Thanks!

I is Speak real good engLish, cause they done learned me real good at my school.

My brother recently pointed me to a website that is a list of hundreds of common English errors.

I can sit and read that thing for hours.

Whoops….Is that last line correct?

It went through MS Word, spelling and grammar check!

Good post!

Most irksome: your instead of you’re.

Most irksome from graphic designers and printers: stationary instead of stationery. They should know better!

This is just excelent! It’s amazing how you described the mistakes I can see everyday as a teacher of English as a foreign language here in Argentina.
Greetings!

Stre!

Cannot vs. Can not – Yes, there is a difference

“Cannot,” as a compound word, is used in a context to indicate a lack of ability:

*I cannot (lack the ability to) read.
*He cannot (lacks the ability to) lift you above his head.

Note 1: “Cannot” used to mean “must not” presumably would be incorrect for the simple reason that “must not,” is what is actually meant. “Can” in these contexts must always carry the implication, “ability.”

*Incorrect: You cannot let him know.
*Correct: You must not let him know.

Can not, as two separate words, indicates an ability to to refrain from doing something:

*”Yeah? Well, what’ll you do about it?” “I can not let you into the club.”

Note 1: Similar to the “cannot” note immediately above, by virtue of the fact that using “could not,” would seem to result in a smoother sentence structure, using “can not” could be considered incorrect as well. However, in this case, “could” and “can” are simply different tenses of the same word, and therefore I personally accept both as valid.

Bonus: Except vs. Accept

“Except” roughly means “with exclusion to,” “but without,” or “not including.” It may help to remember it with the word “excluding.”

*We want everyone on the team except Jim.

“Accept” roughly means “to take in,” “to receive,” or “to welcome.” It may help to remember it with the word “admit.”

*We chose to accept your application to attend college.

Utilizing proper grammar both in speaking and in writing is an important skill that will undoubtedly affect anyone’s life in a positive manner over time, whether in a directly noticeable manner or not. When one views an article such as this, the most productive response is something along the lines of, “Oh, wonderful. A resource that will help me improve my writing.”

Circumstances such as a previous lack of understanding of the principles, a lack of time, a physical difficulty (i.e. dyslexia), and the like should not be used as excuses to remain at one’s current level of proficiency; but rather they should be identified as weak areas in which to target improvement or compensation. Learn more, or enlist someone (preferably with a higher proficiency level) to proofread your material before sending it out.

I do not know for certain, but I’d imagine even Hans Christian Anderson had some sort of copy editor.

Great lesson there. I can always appreciate someone who knows how to write good…er, well.

Great post! It hit most of my favorite Intarweb butcherings, with the major exception of “their/there/they’re”. *shudders* I’m most guilty of mixing up “i.e.” and “e.g.”, although I plan to reform. =P

Quick bit of trivia on apostrophe use: It’s also widely used to represent a glottal stop. I don’t believe that any English words use them, but many other languages do, and they’re expressed in written English by throwing an apostrophe (or the IPA symbol, if you’ve got the specialized typeface available) into the word where the stop would occur if the word were spoken.

Another grammar error that makes me crazy is the misuse of “affect” and “effect.”

We cannot effect change in this organization.
Everything we do is affected by our supply chain.

See link for more explanation.
http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutspelling/affect?view=uk

I’m surprised you didn’t put anything about the “you’re” and “your” confusion. I’d have to say that personally, I’m pretty sure this is the most commonly mistaken one.

“Another grammar error that makes me crazy is the misuse of “affect” and “effect.””

J2L: Now we know why it makes you crazy. You are making the mistake! :p

Not to pat myself on the back, but I’m a registered yoga teacher. I teach people how to breathe. The recent problems I’ve seen with bloggers writing “breathe” when they mean “breath” bums me out major.

Correct: Just calm down, man. Take a breath.

Incorrect: I get heart palpitations and can’t breathe when you touch my computer screen.

Savvy?

Re: Apostrophe

One more use: to fill in for a missing letter. “O’er” for over, for example. In a more modern example, ‘em for “them.”

I guess that doesn’t come up too many times in copy, though.

#9 – “I could care less.” is an American colloquialism, and while logically incorrect, is perfectly understandable in its meaning.

#129 – “Bring” is likewise a uniquely American mode of speech that does not detract from the meaning.

Most intelligent and literate people can make the lexical adjustment to compensate for these differences.

#152 – “We cannot effect change in this organization.” – is perfectly correct when ‘effect’ (verb) is followed by a direct object (change). It means “to cause to happen”.

#152 – “Everything we do is affected by our supply chain.” – ‘Affect’ here is used in the context of something acting upon a process already in progress, not caused to happen by the object phrase (our supply chain).

I am a British ESL/EFL teacher.

I, personally, think the issue with “I could care less” is that its play on words has been euphonized.

As a child, I heard a lot of facetious comments, ironically, from my mother who was a very serious person. So, needless to say, this was a phrase that was common in my home.

However, I heard it as “I could care less, but I don’t.”

As for my struggles, they are with “who” and “whom.” Those two battle it out with me all the time! Who wins? Yes, Who does! LOL!

…Carlada

I liked the simple way in which u explained these simple rules. Guilty of having erred many a times, I’ve now made a note of these points. Thanks.

Another excellent post. Grammar is usually a strong subject of mine (it should be, my mother is an author…), but I do sometimes make these mistakes. I know when I read other sites whose content writers make frequent grammatical errors their credibility goes down in my eyes.

The one mistake that puzzles me is could’ve and could of… I just don’t understand why people make that mistake.

Into the pool I throw: ‘She lay it on the floor’; ‘It was lay on the chair’. Is this a regional quirk? If it is, it drives me barmy. Also PEOPLES’ which seems to be gaining ground. I is so pleased too find that theirs like-minded peoples’ around — going 2 save my sanity.

Excellent!

You’ve forgotten the one error that has become so commonplace, and is driving me absolutely bonkers:
“your” instead of the correct “you’re”.

I see that “loose vs lose” one all the time and it drives me CRAZY!

Do you know about Chris’s cat vs Chris’ apple?

“should of” ? I have never seen anyone do that ever. I can’t believe someone would make that mistake!

Not knowing how to use the apostrophe after an S bugs me, though a lot of people don’t know. Example: “the kids’ shirts”.

The worst verbal slang I’ve ever heard was new to my ears until I moved from Ontario to Alberta: Your guys’s. It ends up sounding like “your guises”, which is not the same thing and the people saying “your guys’s” probably don’t even know what “guises” means. It drives me bonkers because it’s slang slanged! It’s like slang squared! And all they’d have to say is “your”! They don’t know that “your” can be plural!

great post! I was guilty of the i.e/e.g example.

I know another odd one that related to writing based on how things sound. A friend of mine uses why instead of while as in …

I decided to have a coke why (instead of while) I was waiting on my husband to pick me up.

I’m not sure how common this is.

How about “like I said” instead of “as I said”…I guess we can’t all be Valley girls?

Thanks for the great post! It also drives me nuts when people try to correct small errors like one line sentences. It is important for me to review grammer rules every once in a while.

On the question about “Chris’s cat vs Chris’ apple”, I once read in a college handbook that said it is the letter before the last “s” of the possessor that determines whether you add an “s”. You add one for a vowel but not for a consonant. So for Chris, since the letter is an “i” which is a vowel, you add an “s”. So Chris’s cat and Chris’s apple are correct. But for a name like Hans, you wouldn’t. I still like the teacher who said if it sounds right, do it. I think Hans’s cat sounds better.

Does anyone make these mistakes? Hard to imagine.

Actually, I would understand it if these mistakes came from people whose first language isn’t the English language (e.g. Malaysians). But do Westerners make these mistakes as well?

One more for the list, a beginning that is becoming too common: “In addition …” We only need to begin our sentences with this phase when speaking of arithmetic, it should otherwise be avoided.

Brian
I’ve got a question regarding the “different from” or “different than” issue. I teach English as a foreign language, and I’m British. I sometimes train students to take an exam called TOEFL (Test of English for Foreign Learners), which is an American exam. As a British person, I would never say “different than”, but this is the only accepted answer in the American TOEFL books, so I teach my students that it’s an Americanism. Am I wrong?

Thanks for the wonderful class.

What makes my teeth grind is when I hear journalists, professors, anyone say, “Quote unquote,” and then they quote the quote outside the quotation marks.

Don’t theyknow the pupose of these little marks ” ” ?

I know this is not a written problem but just had to let off some steam.

Keep up the great work.

Caroline

A good list! That’s what happens to almost everyone at the very threshold of writing.

“[…] Of course, blogging is more conversational than other forms of business communication, so you don’t necessarily need to obey the rules to the letter. Things like one sentence paragraphs, using “and” as the first word of a sentence or ending one with a preposition are all acceptable in the name of style. However, it’s absolutely essential to know the rules before you can break them properly, and it’s just as necessary to be aware that there are few conventions that you just can’t disregard (correct usage of there, they’re, and their, for instance). The Copyblogger has two excellent posts on grammar and spelling rules that you just can’t break without appearing stupid. […]”

I agree! By far my biggest pet peeve is when people use their, they’re and there incorrectly.

I consider myself fairly well-spoken but as with anything, there is always room for improvement. I can’t believe what some people get away with these days on posts and in their e-books. Even a simple spell-check and read through seem to be too much of a hassle for a lot of people.

Thanks for posting this…sorry for the rant

Oh,
Never read a post like this.And by the way i never keep these in mind.

Haha, Note to self: Do not write comment on Brian´s wall laying down…typos may appear

Wow!!! Talking about English classes… This post will save weeks of English grammar lectures in my country. Excellent post, Brian!!

Too good…I completely agree and want to emphasize that it is not necessary for you to use complex English. Instead, you could use a simple English which would make more sense and look even more professional than the complex one (some times).

Never thought that i will read a post like this.Which tells about a minor but serious issue like this.Yes i do make some of these.

Great post. If I had to write a list, it would look a lot like yours.

For those that enjoy writing, I strongly recommend “On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction” by William Zinnser.

I re-read it about once every 2-3 years.

Happy Marketing.

~Patrick

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Great article as always. Thanks.

My own pet peeve: “Try and…”, like “I’ll try and be there” – that means I will make the attempt AND I will be there. Whereas “I’ll try to be there” means that I will attempt to be there, which is almost always the intended meaning.

This particular misuse shows up everywhere – it’s almost become the standard, and the correct use has become non-standard.

I find there and their haunt me – I always have to watch myself – great list!

I once taught students who were at once bilingual and also illiterate in both languages. Even they were preferable to buffoons who profess to have a comely way with words but do not.

Nice article Brian. This is worth reading. Thanks.

it’s the apostrophe that always gets me

A good list! That’s what happens to almost everyone at the very threshold of writing.

One of THE most obnoxious trends in both speech and written word of late is the lemming-like use of “that said”, or “having said that” or “that being said”. These are now being used ad nauseum. God I hate it.

First of all, your post scares me to write anything here. I might be guilty of doing any one of those errors you’re mentioning. However, I can’t help but add more grammatical errors which I’ve encountered in the past years.

There’s this use of apostrophe to ‘cut’ two words like you’re for you are or I’d for I would. It is important that when you start your paragraph doing this, you should be consistent. In other words, when you started with I’m the rest should be done that way.

Another thing – the between-and. It should be BETWEEN one AND three and not BETWEEN one TO three.

Brian,

This is an excellent example of proper use of English. I often do the same mistakes like you mentioned.

I think I need to learn grammar again.

Cheers!

We had a discussion very much like this one over at http://www.MyRagan.com in May. I’m happy you’ve published a similar post b/c I know your readers are diverse and numerous. Kinda reminds me of Bob Bly’s recent post, “Are Writers Unimportant?” I responded “no” on his post for some of the reasons you listed. So I guess I owe a THANK YOU to those who continually make these mistakes even though they drive me insane—it leaves me with a job, but unfortunately for you, erases any chance that I might read your blog.

I think I need to learn grammar again.

Cheers!

What depresses me here is that not only does the original article contain several mistakes, but much of the advice given in the subsequent comments is also wrong.

Pointing to all the mistaken advice would take too long, so I will comment only on the possessive apostrophe. The rule for this is actually very simple, but for some reason teachers and grammar books make it very convoluted. The rule is that the possessive apostrophe goes after the complete word. Look at these examples:

“The boy’s pencils.”
“The boys’ pencils.”

They are *both* correct. In the first one, there is is one boy, so the apostrophe is placed after the ‘y’. In the second there are two or more boys, so the apostrophe is placed after the ’s’. Isn’t that easy?

Saying “It is conversational in style” is no excuse for being wrong. That does not excuse sloppy grammar. Grammar is not some arbitrary system invented just to make life difficult. It is there for a reason. Look at these three sentences:-

“I lived in Belgium.”
“I was living in Belgium.”
“I have lived in Belgium.”

They may contain the same information, even contain the same content words, but they have three different meanings. If you don’t know what those differences in meaning are, then you don’t understand even the fundamentals of grammar.

What the hell… one last one.

different to
differs from

‘Different to’ because it is being used as an adjective to describe the relationship of one object *to* another.

‘Differs from’ because it is being used as a verb to describe what one object has done to distinguish itself *from* another.

Great article! Don’t forget “then” and “than”.

im g.lad someone can write proper english, like fabio im not pure english i was born in england but im italian , by the way i have not put capital letter on England as above, like nowadays the new generation speak very slang english i also blame the law because your not allowed to do this nor allowed to say that, so your confused, so u might as well stay with your mouth shut. goodnight and god bless. Im not perfect just an average person.

p.s. A “Back to Top” link at the bottom of the comments area would be most helpful to get me to the links to your other blog posts. Again, having to scroll through a lot of comments to navigate the page is time consuming and frustrating. Usually I’ll just give up and navigate to another site altogether. (Yes, I probably do have ADD or one of those acronym-conditions. lol)

Have a great weekend, I’ll be back soon with my website addy, hopefully.
=)

I can’t believe this hasn’t been mentioned, people using big words in the wrong context. There is nothing wrong with trying to sound like a pro but many people embarass themselves badly by using big words to sound intelligent. In reality they look even more foolish because they are using the wrongs words at the wrong time..

I have greatly improved my wrting skills since reading the posts on your website……..thanks for all the informative articles…..

Hi Brian, I would like to make a few comments on this as this is my forte.

1. I vs. Me : I am surprised you didn’t make the distinction between subjective and objective forms. “Give me a call” is correct. And “It was I who wrote it” is correct. Which means, I should be used whenever subjective form is emphasized and ‘me’ for objective form. For more, please get yourself down to this: I vs. Me which is correct

For parallelism, you can view this post: Parallelism in grammar

Since you mentioned, could of and would of, I believe you should also have mentioned than vs. then. There are quite a few who say:

This is longer then that
He went to school. Than he found his friend.

I wrote myself a tidbit grammar post on this aspect. Indeed, your effort shows how important grammar is even in this blogworld.

I have to say that this is the best article I have seen for helping bloggers write in a more literate way!!
I knew all of your examples except for Different than and Different from!!
I see so many bloggers making these blunders. Thanks!

I have noticed that the people who make such mistakes are the native English speakers. Writers of foreign origin generally do not do such simple mistakes. They will have problems in vocabulary itself.

Jadajazz, you should put apostrophe after the second name.

e.g.

Carol and Mike’s house.

It’s the little things that make a world of difference. Paying attention to these areas makes for quality writing.

Editors can rapidly spot when writing is choppy and contains errors. Good writers also spot weaknesses in others’ writing and in their own.

Good writing is persuasive, builds credibility, and ultimately helps to build an audience.

I am a journalism student, and sometimes I feel that my head will explode if I try to cram one more grammar rule into it. Despite my frustration, I know that each rule is important and essential in helping me become a better, more credible writer. This article gave very simple, important explanations of just a few major things to watch out for while writing. That is why I appreciate it. It helped me and gave me important tips without being too overwhelming.

With that said, I’ve read this comment four times hoping that I have not made an error. In this context, my level of embarrassment would be at least double that of an error in another post. I’m crossing my fingers as I click submit…

Must read tips for every writer. Great post

Since I have recently rediscovered the joy of writing again I realized I need to brush up on some of the basic rules (and then some). This post, among others you’ve written, have been quite helpful to me. The quick and easy access to these blogs, which I am now beginning to familiarize myself with, is very handy! Thank you for the solid and helpful information.

Here’s a good strategy for improving writing style with grammar.

Grammatical sentence openers: http://penningtonpublishing.com/blog/grammar_mechanics/how-to-improve-your-writing-style-with-grammatical-sentence-openers/

Don’t forget “use to” and “suppose to”. They drive me as crazy as the ones you have listed.

I never even noticed or though about the would of/would’ve grammar mistake. I don’t think I’ve made that mistake before, but it is really funny seeing how sounds and words trick the mind.

Great post. Since my native language is Greek I foun these tipe extremely helpful.

although i am an english major, i could not clearly say the mistakes above. such as i ,me.and myself.after your examples,i seemed the difference.great pst.thanks a lot.

I’ve learnt a lot from this post. After reading this post, I hope not to do the mistakes again.

“Loose vs. Lose” made me remember how I had to look up both words long time ago. I was supposed to write lose and I wrote loose. Later, I thought about checking, looked them up and realized I was wrong

Nice post Brian

I stumbled here looking for the “rules of three” and wound up enjoying some of your other posts such as this one.

My peeve is people who use “everyday” instead of “every day.” And lo, two posters here made that mistake as they complimented your advice (not advise, which is another one you might cover…)

Best to you and thank you,
Robin

Clips:
This is just excelent! It’s amazing how you described the mistakes I can see everyday as a teacher of English as a foreign language here in Argentina.
—
I’m guilty as well. Good thing I got your site on my favorites as I’m learning a lot everyday.

Fantastic tips. I sometimes get the “me” and “I” mixed up. Cheers, Sam

You’ve hit on some of my most hated grammatical errors here…

Use of the apostrophe with possessives is actually quite easy. Here is the rule: “EVERYTHING gets an ’s (apostrophe s) except plurals that already end in s, which only get an apostrophe”. Eg, ‘the horse’s food’ (one horse), or ‘the horses’ food’ (many horses). ‘Jesus’s house’ ‘Mister Jones’s house’ but ‘The Joneses’ house’ (as a family). Plurals not ending in s? They get an apostrophe s of course! ‘the geese’s food’ the children’s food’ Easy!

Excellent! Love this.

In my experience, you can say that you are fine or well, but you can’t say you’re good. Fine and well each describe a state of being (I am doing well, I am doing fine), while good expresses that you are useful, moral, doing deeds, or are valuable (”I’m good,” or “doing good.”). I’m glad you asked about less and fewer; two of my favorites. Fewer theoretically represents a number, less is a quantity: fewer clouds on a less cloudy day.

Make those grammar and style references your friends, please. Use them early and often. I’m glad that errors like these make someone else’s teeth itch. As the Style Guru for our company, I write about this stuff all the time. Here’s an example http://blog.thesimonsgroup.com/2009/11/style-guru-4/

And look at my post! I made an error in the name ‘Stelios’. Christ, I get so carried away on the subject of grammar!

This is the list I often do………:P
But from today i will try my best to get rid of these.

Since I started blogging, this is a recurring theme – grammar, punctuation and the proper use of words. I’ve become quite aware now. This awareness has made me look closer at how journalists and writers in newspapers and magazines deliver their content. I find it incredibly amazing that journalists go to university for years to study correct use of the English language and, yet, they, with all their training, make incredibly stupid mistakes, have typos, and miss proper connections between words. We mere mortals of the writing world must forgive ourselves for the occasional error – the pros do it all the time!

You are the first person who has ever explained the “me” and “I” conundrum in a way that I can understand. Thank you.

While I agree that blog post should be conversational, I think part of making it “easier on the reader” is actually following the rules. Yes, breaking the rules every now and then is fine: one word paragraphs, occasional incomplete sentences, etc; but most garden-variety bloggers haven’t even considered grammar or writing complete sentences. Yes, know the rule, then break it, as you mentioned.

I guess I’m biased, I read Strunk and White’s book around once a year.

Thanks for the great post. In reponse to someone who mentioned the sad underuse of the semicolon, I would like to add the sad misuse of the semicolon. I’ve noticed that lots of people use this helpful punctuation mark, but very few use it correctly. Its proper use is pretty straightforward, and it’s almost always taught in school; I don’t know why it doesn’t sink in. Maybe it’s because you need to be able to recognize an independent clause in order to know when to use it the right way. When I was an English teacher, I caught a few students for plagiarism because their essays actually used semicolons correctly, and I knew that the students themselves didn’t know how to do that. Very sad.