Amidst the daily conundrum of life, we often end up making some grammar errors that we almost never should. Here are 7 that I feel everyone needs to rehash.
Yeah. Myself included.
- It’s not it’s. It’s its.
So you use it’s when you want to say, “It is.” But you use “its” when you want to express that something belongs to someone/something else.
- Subject-verb agreement.
Singular subjects sport a singular verb and plural subjects have plural verbs. And singular verbs come with an S.
So it’s ‘the cat jumps over the wall’ as opposed to ‘the cat jump over the wall’. Yeah, it is really that simple.
- Use commas!
Commas are to be liberally used. And mostly when objects or clauses are independently meaningful.
Eg: She ordered a pasta, a coke and a sub-sandwich for dinner.
Okay, another famous one:
The panda eats shoots and leaves.
vs
The panda eats, shoots and leaves.
You get that, right?
- Dangling Modifiers
This one, I kill. I almost can never get it right. Like the Purdue Owl website states, “A dangling modifier is a word or phrase that modifies a word not clearly stated in the sentence. A modifier describes, clarifies, or gives more detail about a concept.
Eg: Having finished the assignment, Jill turned on the TV.”
You should really look it up further here.
Also Read: The Word “Very” Is VERY Unnecessary. Or Should I Say, Redundant: Poster Series
- Me vs I
Eg: Correct – Him and I are good friends. Wrong – Her and me are going to the party tomorrow.
Further, it would be right to say, “I and my friend are going to the beach to get a tan.”
- How to Pronounce ‘the’
The as “Thee only and only before vowel subjects/objects. It depends on the phonemes rather than the spellings.
Will help you figure out if a person is talking about the(thee) ear or the(the) year quicker in conversations.
- You’re vs Your
Seriously, stop making this mistake everyone. Yes, you too in the corner. Stop it.
This was a round of the most common errors I have come across. If you know about more, write to us below about what irks you the most!
Read More:
http://edtimes.in/2017/06/what-to-expect-from-a-masters-in-english-hons-student-of-du/
