Writers' Treasure Magnetic Writing The most confusing grammar mistakes, explained

The most confusing grammar mistakes, explained

This is a guest article by Umesh Joshi. If you want to submit a guest article of your own, be sure to read the guest article guidelines.

We all enjoy conversational writing and find it very engaging, but at the expense of fractured grammar, it might not be acceptable. So, to help you drill your way to reader’s heart, here’s a quick fix.

Subject-verb agreement

The subject and verb of a sentence must match up with each other in number whether they are plural or singular. If subject is singular, its verb must be singular and vice versa.

For Example:

Incorrect: Her dogs loves to play in the park.

Correct: Her dogs love to play in the park.

We often get confused with the words that come in between the subject and verb. For example:

Incorrect: The king, who is known for his helpers, are a good man.

Correct: The king, who is known for his helpers, is a good man.

Passive voice

Instead of being placed at the beginning, an object is placed at the end of the sentence in passive voice. With passive sentences, your content seems weak and unclear.

Sounds different? Check this (the same paragraph in active voice):

A sentence becomes passive when the object (noun that receives the action) is placed at the beginning of the sentence instead of the end. Usage of passive sentences makes your content weak and unclear.

You can clearly mark the difference in the above paragraphs.

Comma splice

When two independent clauses are connected by a comma they form a run-on sentence. People often confuse long sentences to be run-on sentences, but, in reality structural flaw is independent of length of sentence.

For example:

Incorrect: She kept waiting for him at the restaurant, he didn’t come.

Correct: She kept waiting for him at the restaurant, but he didn’t come.

When only a comma is used to connect two independent sentences, it need to be accompanied by conjunctions (so, but, and, or, yet).

Apostrophe misuse

Apostrophe is meant to be used either for contractions or to show possession.

For example:

Incorrect: Its not my cup of tea.

Correct: It’s not my cup of tea.

Incorrect: Reliance has a way of getting it’s work done.

Correct: Reliance has a way of getting its work done.

“It’s” is often confused with its. “It’s” means “It is or it has” whereas “its” shows possession.

Also, apostrophes are not meant to be used in the case of words like “Dos.”

Most confusing words

  1. Effect vs Affect

Incorrect: Passive writings do not attract readers, and this might effect the user traffic on your blog.

“Affect” is used as a verb whereas “effect” is more often used as a noun. So, “effect” does not justify above sentence.

Correct: Passive writings do not attract readers, and this might affect the user traffic on your blog.

  1. Between vs Among

Incorrect: His actions completely justify the fact that he is the most coward man between his colleagues.

“Between” is used to point out the difference between two things or people whereas “among” is used when the reference is for more than two things.

Correct: His actions completely justify the fact that he is the most coward man among his colleagues.

  1. Me vs. I

Incorrect: The drunk driver hit my friend and I with his car.

But that’s wrong, because “I” is a subject pronoun and cannot be used at the place of an object.

Correct: The drunk driver hit my friend and me with his car.

  1. Your vs Yours

“Your” is a possessive adjective and “yours” is a possessive pronoun.

Incorrect: Your Sincerely

Correct: Yours Sincerely

Wrap-up

These were just few but most common mistakes which are literally killing grammar deteriorating grammar standards both online and in print. So, from now on watch your words and the sentence structure to see how well it complies to basic grammar rules, and correct people who are doing it wrong.  Get started!

Author Bio: Umesh Joshi has a flair to tackle breaking tech news; especially High End Laptops which are good for programming, gaming and graphic design. He writes at laptopforprogramming.com.

One thought on “The most confusing grammar mistakes, explained”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Post

Demolish your writer’s blockDemolish your writer’s block

This is a guest article by Edwin Henry. If you want to submit a guest article of your own be sure to read the guest article guidelines.

A lot of people want a magic bullet to either motivate them to start writing for the first time, or a method to get around a mental block. Writers’ Treasure has talked about this before, with Idrees relating his solutions for shaking off stagnation and mixing things up.

There is a romantic idea that inspiration is something that strikes you, and after that light goes off, you’ll dive into your magnum opus and come out the other side with a complete work. The reality is, writing takes work, and if you’re blocked, it feels like that work is impossible to follow through with.

That paralysis can really jam up your creative track and make you struggle to get even a couple of words out onto a page. Especially if you have an inkling of what you want to talk about, but feel kind of stuck on how to achieve it.

Here are the things that have and continue to help me. Some of them are based on when I first started writing, when blocks are powerful things because self-doubt is hard to counter because you may be lacking evidence to dissolve it.

(more…)

Warning: Do You Know that Your Paragraphs are Not Good Enough?Warning: Do You Know that Your Paragraphs are Not Good Enough?

Have you ever wondered why your writing was not good enough?

We’ve all done it.

You write and you write. You stress over your choice of words and your sentence structure. You’ve got the headlines and the subheads perfected. Your content is fantastic, something that deserves to get viral, deserves to be read by people. It’s helpful, informative and funny as well. It’s brilliant according to you, and yet no one bothers to read it (even if you market it like crazy).

So where’s the problem here? If there were one more sentence before the 2nd and 3rd sentences in the last paragraph, a sentence like this… “You write superb paragraphs.” Then it would explain the problem. Why, though?

It’s like this: a bricklayer can do his work brilliantly, but if his fundamental blocks – the bricks – are of poor quality, then how is his work and the result going to be perfect?

If the fundamental building blocks are of low quality, then how can the overall result be a masterpiece?

And what are the fundamental building blocks in writing? … Paragraphs.

So how do we get these paragraphs right so that we can speed on our way to other important things that matter? In short, how can we master the art of writing awesome paragraphs?

That’s what we’re here for. So let’s begin, class is in session!
(more…)

How to come up with exceptional essaysHow to come up with exceptional essays

This is a guest article by Matthew Hardan. If you want to submit a guest article of your own, be sure to read the guest article guidelines.

Writing outstanding essays is a skill that can have a big impact on your academic progress and personal improvement. Mastering the art of essay writing enables you to engage readers, provide your distinct point of view, and leave a lasting impact. In this article, we will dive into fundamental ideas and tips for writing exceptional essays. This will help you unleash your entire writing ability and craft an outstanding essay by grasping factors such as research, organization, structure, and creativity.

(more…)