
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/7-deadly-sins-of-grammar-954207
its
v. it’s. Many of us may have learned our
grade-school grammar too well. “Apostrophe s” is the sign for possession,
right? So when an it owns something, we write it’s. But it’s is a contraction of it is.
they
v. he or she. He
or she is cumbersome when you don’t know
a person’s gender. We used to use the masculine he. Modern feminism made that unpalatable. Many writers try to be politically
correct, using they, and end up grammatically
incorrect. If gender is unknown, you have three good choices: 1) use he or
she; 2) pick he in some instances, she in others; 3) make the antecedent
plural and use they. (Instead of “a person must speak
his or her mind”
between
you and I. Between is a preposition, and prepositions
must be followed by objects.
who
v. whom. Who
is a pronoun we use for the subject of a sentence, as in “Who called?” Whom is the pronoun we use for the
object of a sentence, as in “You called whom?”
good
v. well. How many times have you heard a
sentence like “This car runs good”? Get this straight: Good is an adjective; it modifies a
noun. Well is an adverb; it modifies a verb,
adjective, or other adverb.
fewer
v. less. Fewer is the correct adjective when the
noun it modifies is a plural comprising multiple units. Less is the correct adjective when the
noun it modifies is something that is a mass, or an idea, rather than a number
of units. Nonfat milk has fewer
calories than whole milk; we should have less
Coke in our diet than milk.
lay
v. lie. Learn this to stay a step ahead of
most writers and editors. Lay is
a transitive verb. It must have an object to complete its meaning: A chicken
lays eggs. Lie is an intransitive verb. It needs
no object to make sense: The dog lies down. (Down
is an adverb.)
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