Ten Annoying Spelling And Grammar Mistakes

I’m not a professional writer. In fact, back in school I regularly passed English class by only one or two points. Even though I hate writing (and I suck at it), I still don’t think there is any excuse to make any of the common spelling and grammar mistakes. They only take 2 seconds to fix! Well, let’s get started with this, shall we?

Grammer - There’s simply no excuse for this mistake. It is grammar, not grammer. Sheesh!

Affect vs Effect - Affect means “to have an effect upon”. An example sentence is “My leaky roof began to affect my mood.” An effect is a change or a consequence. “My leaky roof had an effect on my mood.” Affect is a verb, effect is a noun. Big difference.

Use Punctuation - If you pause when reading your sentence, stick either a comma, a period, or a semicolon there. Commas and semicolons are usually fairly interchangeable. Periods (and exclamation marks, question marks, etc) end a sentence.

Good vs Well Good should be used like “That was good” or “What a good movie”, Well should be used like “She was doing well” “I’m well, and you?”. Not too hard to memorize, but a lot of people still mix them up.

Use Paragraphs - Remember to split up your text using paragraphs.

But don’t go overboard.

Or else your readers will get quite annoyed.

You know what I’m talking about?

I’m guilty of doing this all the time.

Too Many Quotes - Although sometimes I use quotes too much, a lot of other blogs use them all the time. They quote “random stuff” for “no apparent reason” and I just “can’t” quite “figure out why.”

Irregardless - Irregardless is a very informal word, and when you think about it, it is a double negative. Regardless means “without regard”, irregardless would technically mean “with regard” (although many dictionaries define irregardless the same way as regardless.)

Then or Than - I’m guilty of this mistake. Then should be used like “then he won the lotto” or “I bought a cookie then I ate it”, than is “I have more coookies than you” or “I’m prettier than this man” (sorry, I love Braveheart!)

You’re vs Your You’re means “you are”, your is a possessive adjective that means something belongs to you.

And finally, the classic…

Their, They’re, There Their, like “your”, is a possessive adjective, it means something belongs to someone. They’re means “they are” . And there means something is at a place or position (e.g., I thought I placed it there).

Well, that’s it. Stay tuned for more Back To The Basics posts.

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