Common Misused & Misspelled Words and Phrases

by 5 people | Log in to rate

Ranked #3,334 in How-To, #36,107 overall

Frequently Misspelled or Misused Words & Phases and Other Grammatical Errors

When you or your business is sending party invitations, announcements and holiday cards there are no shortage of grammatical hurdles that you need to engage to ensure a quality product the recipient will enjoy. While etiquette rules are relatively consistent, there are geographical variations as well as discrepancies based on common usage.

This is a work in progress but following are a few guidelines you can follow to ensure safe passage between the various rules. We'll try to keep the language simple and easy to understand. Stick with us and you'll not only avoid the most common pitfalls, but even your most etiquette sensitive friends will be envious of your invitation dexterity.

Repeating some rules like the usage of to, too & two and there, their & they're may seem like beating a dead horse. However, they are misused so frequently that obviously the message isn't getting across.

We want to keep this interactive, we'll share errors we frequently run into and want to hear yours as well...including any you might see in this page:)

This page is brought to you by your wedding invitation and personal stationery experts, Wedding Paper Divas & Tiny Prints. Now while we're at it, Tiny Prints is very excited to announce our new 2008 holiday card designs and a brand new site redesign. Let us know what you think.

Contents at a Glance

Helpful Grammar Blog
Blog Posts From Google About Spelling & Grammar
Spotlighting Our Most Frequestly Seen Spelling and Grammar Errors

Quiz Yourself
Feel free to leave your comments
Our Address

more...

Helpful Grammar Blog
Blog Posts From Google About Spelling & Grammar
Spotlighting Our Most Frequestly Seen Spelling and Grammar Errors
Quiz Yourself
Leave me your comments about misused grammar and get a link back!
Vote for the "worst of" grammar errors
Feel free to leave your comments
Tiny Prints Facebook Pages

Helpful Grammar Blog

Fetching RSS feed... please stand by

Blog Posts From Google About Spelling & Grammar

Best Job Resume Spelling & Punctuation Tips | Job On Net: any errors? ? punctuation correct? Correct punctuation is another consideration for expressing good grammar, and essential for creating clear business communications. The rules of usage are confusing at times, but reflect common sense ...
» Why Not Use a Grammar Checker to Assure your Work is Perfect ...: They can be effectively used to detect poor grammar usage, spelling errors, formatting, sentence fragments, and provide a dictionary and a thesaurus too. This can greatly save an editor some time, and reflect on your work quality ...
American English Writing & Grammar Checker – Try it Now! | English ...: American English Writing & Grammar Checker helps us dealing with one of the most complex areas of a language ? that is 'Grammar'. Until today we trusted our conventional word processors to help us with spelling errors, but unfortunately ...
ARTICLE WRITTER NEEDED NO GRAMMAR OR SPELLING ERRORS.. by lifeplus: Excellent English needed no grammar or spelling errors allowed. Be able to write min 1-2 articles a day [450- 500 words per article]. Articles need to pass copyscape at all times. ? Perfect English? (Budget: $30-250, Jobs: Article ...

Spotlighting Our Most Frequestly Seen Spelling and Grammar Errors

Below you will find the most common errors we encounter

Using apostrophe in plural family name

Oh so common, oh so wrong!

I'll admit that I'm sure I made this mistake in the past, especially since my last name looks silly in plural form but a rule is a rule and especially for stationery that will get sent to many people who know proper grammar, why embarrass yourself.

Remember, an apostrophe shows possession and used when two words are combined such as it's (it is), you're (you are) etc. When referencing your family in a plural sense, you do not add an apostrophe.

Incorrect: The Smith's
Correct: The Smith or The Smith Residence/Home/Family

Incorrect: The Williams's
Correct The Williamses
Same rule applies the Jones (yeah, I know it looks funny, so I recommend using "The Williams Family" or similar to avoid using the plural.

If you have a last name that ends in z,x or ch, it may look odd but with few exceptions, you will need to add "es" to your last name to make it plural. Think of the word sandwich or box. If you need to show plural possession add the apostrophe at the end as in sandwiches'.

To, Too & Two

Few will misuse "too" so I'll concentrate on the latter two. Get the pun? Too usually means excessively, also, besides or very. It may also be used in place of "so" as in "you did too." A frequent example of a mistake would be to replace "too" with "to" as in, I ate to much or I want to go to. Seems like a rather mundane mistake but it really jumps off the page for the reader as an error.

There, Their & They're

So common of a mistake yet so easy to avoid, another major mistake that will send readers running from your page.

In this case "there" is used frequently in place of "their" or "they're." Remember that "their" shows possession as in, we're riding in their car and "they're" is simple they joining of "they" and "are" as is, they're going home. See funny YouTube video below.

Take the There Their They're Test

RSVP or Invitation Response

RSVP or also commonly R.S.V.P. translates to "répondez s'il vous plaît" or "please respond." If you receive a request to RSVP to a party, it means the sender wants you to response whether or not you can come to the event and it would be rude to ignore.

Please do not preface RSVP with "Please," it already means "please respond."

On the other hand, the term "Regrets Only" or "Regrets Only by October 10, 2009" is asking you to reply only if you can't make it. Sometimes this is easier since it is common for people forget to reply. Perhaps a few more people will show as well when they realize that it is too late to opt out.

Lastly, if you're going to use periods between the letters such as R.S.V.P., don't forget the last one!

Stationery or Stationary?

In our line of work, the answer is obvious...we sell stationery. However, there seems to be a common misconception that the term "stationary" can be interchanged with "stationery." Just so we're clear, it cannot. "Stationary" means unchanging or immobile and the dictionary isn't ambiguous about it. However, if you look at frequent search terms in Google you'll see that a large percentage is used in conjunction with words like personal, paper, fine, custom, Christmas, holiday, letter and wedding. Since those words are clearly out of place when used with "immobile," there is an obvious misunderstanding of how to use the word. We even wrote a blog post regarding the misuse of stationary.

Because this issue is so ongoing and pervasive, we have dedicated a lens to the issue of how to use stationery and stationary in context.

Quiz Yourself

A list of helpful and fun grammar quizes

Quiz: Test Your Writing Skills!: Take this quiz! Which of the following is the best for academic writing? "The group of three were inspired to do their grammar project together."
Quiz: Are you a Grammar King or Queen: See how well you fare with this grammar quiz. Take this quiz! What was the (affect/effect) of the victory? (Because/Since) he lied, he was expelled.
Quiz: It's Grammar, Not Grammer: do u type liek dis or are you more of the refined sort? If you're always saying, "Oh, I can use proper English, chat and 1337 are just faster," this is the...
Quiz: the its it's there their they're test: see if you know the answers Take this quiz! which one is correct? which one is correct? which one is correct?

Gimme more

I'll be adding to this lens frequently. If you have a suggestion, let me know and I'll publish your comment and link back to your lens or site.

Thanks!

Common Misused & Misspelled Words and Phrases

Frequently Misspelled or Misused Words & Phases and Other Grammatical Errors

Contents at a Glance

Contents at a Glance

Table of Contents

Helpful Grammar Blog

Blog Posts From Google About Spelling & Grammar

Spotlighting Our Most Frequestly Seen Spelling and Grammar Errors

Using apostrophe in plural family name

Oh so common, oh so wrong!

To, Too & Two

There, Their & They're

RSVP or Invitation Response

Stationery or Stationary?

Quiz Yourself

A list of helpful and fun grammar quizes

Gimme more

Leave me your comments about misused grammar and get a link back!

Vote for which errors are the most annoying

1

2

3

4

5

6

Please pick your widget size and display. Then click "Make the Widget" to get the code that's just right for you.

Voila: Just copy and paste this code into your own site. Have fun!

Oopsey! Please login to Squidoo in order to add this module to your lens.

Vote for the "worst of" grammar errors

If you care to vote but don't want to add a link

1

Misusing there, their & they're

2

Reversing me & I

3

Using an apostrophe in a last name to make plural

4

Misusing to, too & two

5

Using myself in place of me

Please pick your widget size and display. Then click "Make the Widget" to get the code that's just right for you.

Voila: Just copy and paste this code into your own site. Have fun!

Oopsey! Please login to Squidoo in order to add this module to your lens.

A YouTube video on the misuse of Your and You're

My favorite

Marty says: YOU'RE not using "YOUR" correctly.

A YouTube video dealing with grammar/spelling errors on video games

Video Game Typos, Misspellings, and Bad Grammar

Feel free to leave your comments

Suggestions welcome!

Our Address

Our other lenses and various helpful resources

Feel free to add to the list

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

The Tiny Prints Holiday Photo Card Video

Tiny Prints Facebook Pages

by TinyPrints

Explore related pages