Day 30: Grammar!

Part of the reason why I started this blog was for it to take the place of the Grammar Club I started up and briefly ran at my school. Since it proved impossible to find a time when everyone could attend Grammar Club (and the number of people at my school who cared about grammar and language was limited anyway), the club disbanded and I decided to write this blog instead. Because of its origins, I think it's about time this blog had a grammar post on it, don't you?

Here are ten tips to help you avoid the most basic, common grammatical errors:

1. You only ever use it's if you mean it is. Don't get confused by the possessive apostrophe rule (I'll get to that in another post), because in this case the possessive form doesn't have an apostrophe. Its means belonging to it.

"It's a nice day today" is interchangeable with "It is a nice day today".

"I'm going to give the dog its dinner" is different, because you couldn't say "I'm going to give the dog it is dinner" and still make sense.


2. There, they're, and their are all homophones -- which I've spoken about before -- so they're easily confused. Essentially, they're means they are, there is referring to a place, and their indicates that something is belonging to someone.

"They're eating dinner."
"Look over there!"
"The kids really like their Christmas presents."


3. Don't write loose when you mean lose. The former, loose, is the adjective form of the verb loosen; something that is loose is not tight. To lose is a verb, meaning to have misplaced something.

"These trousers are really loose."
"Did you lose your keys again?"


4. I once had a history teacher who would mark our essays down if we wrote could of instead of could have. I liked that teacher.

There are no circumstances I can think of where writing could of, would of, or should of is grammatically correct. What you mean is could have, would have, or should have. The reason for this common error is that the verbalised could've sounds a lot like could of.

"I could have passed that test if I'd revised."


5. Most people aren't entirely sure when to say and I as opposed to and me. Generally, people either guess with whatever sounds right or they just stick to the latter, which is more casual. The easiest way to tell the difference is by taking the other people out of the sentence.

"You and I should go to the party" is correct because "I should go to the party" is correct by itself.
"You should come to the party with Jane and me" works because "you should come to the party with me" works.

If you can't remember that rule, then just remember that and I almost always goes at the start of a sentence whereas and me generally comes at the end of the sentence (or clause).


6. Your and you're are another set of homophones, but they follow the same rules as their and they're: your is possessive, while you're means you are.

"You're looking very nice today."
"Are you aware that your coat is on fire?"


7. Not everybody is aware that practise and practice are two different words. Practise is a verb; practice is a noun.

"I have to practise the piano if I want to improve."
"Netball practice is after school."


8. Similarly, affect and effect are often confused. In general, effect is a noun and affect is a verb.

"This will have a causal effect."
"How will this affect the business?"

There are exceptions to this rule: in psychology, affect can be used as a noun to describe how someone is feeling; effect is also a verb meaning to bring about.


9. To understand when to use who and when to use whom, you need to understand what the subject and object of a sentence are. The subject is the one doing something the object is the one having something done to them. The sentence subject is referred to as who and the sentence object is whom.

"With whom are you going to the dance?"
"Who's coming with me?"


10. You can't interchangeably use i.e. and e.g.: i.e. means that is, so it is used to clarify your meaning, and e.g. means for example.

"I only like bright colours, e.g., yellow and orange."
"I spend all my time in one place, i.e., my bedroom."

I hope you find these tips useful! I'll post some more about grammar in the future.

Today was the last day of Blog Every Day September! I'm going to try to write a blog post every week from now on, but it was fun to post so often. I didn't realise quite how much I had to say until I tried it; I still have plenty of ideas for posts, so expect lots more.