Easy Grammatical Errors Training

September 2006 Training: Easy Grammatical Errors

Nobody likes to read a document full of grammatical errors. In addition, too many errors will ruin your credibility and draws your reader away. Pay attention to how and what you write—here are six simple errors to watch out for.

1. Mixed tenses. Don’t start writing in present tense and change to past tense or vice versa. Obviously you need to switch tenses if you’re talking about an event that has already taken place, but sometimes it is easy to get caught up in a train of thought and accidentally forget.

We wanted him to work with us this week, but he wants to wait a month.

The above paragraph contains two verbs: the first is past tense while the second is present tense. Switching tenses will ultimately confuse your reader, so write both verbs as either past or present, depending on the appropriate situation.

Past tense: We wanted him to work with us this week, but he wanted to wait a month.
Present tense: We want him to work with us this week, but he wants to wait a month.

2. Subject/verb agreement. Make sure you use the correct subject/verb agreement in your sentences. As in the above present-tense example, the first part of the sentence refers to more than one individual—we want is the subject and the verb. We is plural, so we must align the verb with a plural verb as well. In the second half, the subject he is singular, so the verb must also align with the singular as wants. Other examples:

Incorrect: One of the individuals have forgotten the date of the convention. (One is the subject.)
Correct: One of the individuals has forgotten the date of the convention.

It’s also easy to switch tenses among quotes:

“The best way to get the opportunity is to go out and find it,” Mackay says. His wife agreed: “We love this business and continue to enjoy being affiliated here.”

In this example the first verb is present tense; the second is past tense. Try to remain consistent with the tense that you use.

3. Quotation marks. Use single quotes for a quote located inside another quote. Quotation marks should go outside a question mark unless it is a single quote.

"During your last visit, did she really say, ‘If you can find a better way to do this, I'll give you a promotion’? That was pretty cool."

4. Comma vs. semicolon. Semi-colons are used to separate two complete sentences that share the same thought. However, use a comma if you have two complete sentences separated with a conjunction. If you use a comma where a semi-colon should go, it is called a comma splice.

Girls' camp was a huge success, we hope to do even better next year.

This sentence should either have a semi-colon in it, or you could add a conjunction between them.

Jade camp was a huge success; we hope to do even better next year.
Jade camp was a huge success, and we hope to do even better next year.

5. Apostrophes. You can’t turn everything into a possessive by using an apostrophe. If you are wondering if a word should be possessive, make sure the word is modifying something. Common errors abound like this:

I want to give them to the dog’s.

Give them to the dog’s what? The apostrophe does not possess anything so there is no need for it. However, if you wrote, I want to give them to the dog’s owner, then the possessive belongs to the owner, and the apostrophe after dog is correct.

The largest culprit of the apostrophe mistake is its vs. it’s. The word it’s is a contraction meaning it is. Always consider whether or not you mean to take the possessive:

It’s a nice day. (it is)
They participated in its ten-year celebration. (possessive)

6. Grammar Usage. Make sure you don’t carelessly confuse spelling for meaning—it’s very easy to change the spelling of a word and have it mean something else. The most common errors occur as homonyms, which are words that sound the same but are spelled differently. So here are a few common errors to help you out:

Their/there/they’re
They are repainting their house. (possessive)
The landmark is right there. (location)
They’re going to the concert tomorrow. (contraction for ‘they are’)

Too/to/two
We are going to the park; do you want to come too? (in addition)
Are you going to the store? (preposition)
I bought two steaks for dinner. (number)

Site/cite/sight
Here is the new site of the warehouse (location)
Please cite your source in the article. (to refer to something)
He lost sight of the goal. (vision)

Lose/loose
Please don’t lose the keys. (misplace)
I had to loosen my tie. (release tension)

Sale/sell (upsell)
The sale was a success. (used as a noun)
We need to sell the house. (used as a verb)
Please upsell this product. (used as a verb)

Lay/lie
Please lay the book on the desk. (to physically set something down)
I am going to lie down and take a nap. (recline in a horizontal position)

Then/than
She walked to the door then turned and walked out. (soon afterwards)
My dog is larger than his dog. (comparison)

Farther/further
The rock kept rolling farther down the mountain. (physical distance)
Let’s not analyze this matter further. (in addition to)