Tutorial: Fix the Most Common Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation Mistakes

"Its" without an apostrophe - is a possessive, third person, singular adjective that typically relates to something other than a person. The noun it refers to was probably mentioned just previously (in this sentence, "it" refers to the noun "noun"), so you know what "it" is.

"Its" refers to something "it" possesses:

> The dog was so agitated, its barks were deafening.
> I picked a daffodil and its color reminded me of sunshine.

"It's" with an apostrophe - is an abbreviation for (1) it is or (2) it has:

(1) It's a foregone conclusion. It's raining.
(2) It's been proven long ago. Look at the daffodil; it's gone to seed.

The main rule to remember here is - the apostrophe takes the place of missing letters and represents a shortened version of a pronoun and a verb: "it is" or "it has."

No apostrophe means ownership of some kind - and no missing letters.

"Your" is the second person singular adjective that relates to something "you" possess:

> Your clothes
> Your car
> Your outlook on life

"You're" is a contraction for "you are."

> You're going to be impressed.
> You're on the right road.
> You're going to love this new dessert.

"Whose" is an adjective that essentially asks a question about the ownership of something:

> Whose shoes are they?
> Whose science project won?
> I don't know whose idea that was.

Who's is simply an abbreviation for "who is" or "who has." The apostrophe indicates missing letters.

For example, "Who's coming with me?" or "Who's the man?"

"Who's" - as in "Who's got the tickets" is a contraction for "who has." We could have said, "Who has the tickets," but we just as often say, "Who's got..." (which is short for "who has got.")

"Their" is a possessive, third person, plural adjective relating to "something belonging to them" - as in: their house, their political party, their stupid rules of grammar - and the entities involved have been named earlier, so it's implied that you know who or what they are. What is being pointed out now is the house, party or rules "owned" by "them." You can just as easily be talking about daffodils, with "their" flowers shimmering in the sun.

"There" has a few meanings. It can mean a physical place: over there, go there - or it can mean a virtual place: stop right there before you say something you'll regret.

Sometimes "there" is used to express satisfaction, sympathy or even defiance: There, it's finished! There, there, you'll soon feel better. There! You do it!

And "there" is frequently used to introduce a sentence or clause: There comes a time...

"Hi there" and "you, there" are sometimes used when we don't remember someone's name right away.

To confuse the issue even more, there's a third usage that sounds the same but is spelled differently - "they're." Here the apostrophe indicates a missing letter. "They're" is an abbreviation for "they are" - as in "they're coming" or "they're not so big."

There are many different ways to use quotation marks and, in this post, we'll look at sentence punctuation in relationship to quotations. In other words, does the comma, period, question mark or exclamation point come before or after the quotation marks?

(1) With commas and periods, the quotation marks go after the comma or period:

"I love you," said Mary.
John replied, "I would follow you to the moon."

(2) If you're using a semicolon or colon, you place the quotation marks before the semicolon or colon:

I asked you the "question of the year": do you love me?
Malcolm was "fit to be tied"; he had just missed the last bus home.

(3) With a question or exclamatory sentence, place the quotation marks after the the question mark or exclamation point:

"Do you love me?" asked Mary.
"You do love me!" Mary gushed.

However... if you're using a question mark or an exclamation point around a specific word, rather than enclosing a sentence, the quotation marks go before.

Do you even know the meaning of the word "love"?
It's a girl - and her name is "Mary"!

When "none" means "not one" or "no one," we use a singular verb following it.

For example, "None of the presidential candidates is worth voting for." The singular verb "is" relates back to the singular pronoun "none" rather than to the plural noun "candidates."

But if "none" refers to more than one person or thing, you use a plural verb. For example: "None are so ridiculous as those who always think they are right."

Other words that give us pause - and create an abundance of grammar mistakes are: each, either, everyone, neither, nobody and someone. The verb following these words should be singular.

For example:

> Each of us is wealthy. (NOT "are wealthy")
> Neither Harry nor Sally is coming with us. (NOT "are coming with us")
> Everyone has his own opinion. (NOT "has their")

"Loan" is a noun: I asked the bank for a loan.

"Lend" is a verb: Will you lend me some money?

Incorrect: The bank will loan me $1000.00.
Correct: The bank will lend me $1000.00 - or - The loan from the bank is for $1000.00.

Incorrect: I loaned her my best sweater.
Correct: I lent her my best sweater.

LIE:

One usage of the verb "lie" means "to recline"
>>> I am going to lie down on the sofa for awhile.

However... the past tense of "lie" is "lay"
>>> I only lay in bed for half an hour.

And... the past participle is "lain"
>>> I have lain in bed longer than I should have.

LAY:

A common usage of the verb "lay" means "to put or set down"
>>> I am planning to lay my purse on that table.

Past tense is "laid"
>>> I laid my purse on that table just ten minutes ago.

Past participle is also "laid"
>>> I have laid my purse on that table every day for a month.

Of course "lie" also means to fib, but that's not the one we confuse with "lay." And we could "lay a bet" or "lay a plan" or "lay the table for dinner," but these are not confused with "lie."

BOTTOM LINE: You don't "lay down" in bed, nor would you have "laid in bed for a nap."

You LIE down but you LAY something else down, when speaking in the present tense, which is where most of the mistakes come from with the lie-lay situation.

When to use "affect" or "effect" confuses many people - for good reason. Since the 1400s, these words have been somewhat interchangeable, with meanings passing back and forth between them. In current English usage, here's how it stands:

"Affect" is mostly used a verb that means "to influence" or "to change."

> The state of the economy will affect people's buying habits.
> In many circles, your clothing affects how you are perceived.

However... "affect" as a noun describes a feeling or emotion and is a term used most often in psychology.

"Effect" is most often used a noun meaning "result."

> The effect of his naval training was a well-run ship.
> Every cause has an effect.

However... "effect" is sometimes used as a verb meaning "to accomplish" or "to bring about."

> He effected a studious demeanor, thinking it would impress his teachers.
> They hope to effect a settlement of the dispute before the weekend.

A common usage mistake in English is to use the word "unique" in a way that makes the noun it modifies seem not unique.

When we say "most unique" or "very unique" about something, what we're really saying is the thing isn't unique at all. The word "unique" means something is without equal or there is nothing else like it. So there is no "uniquer" option. A thing is either unique or it isn't. There is no continuum for uniqueness.

We wouldn't say, "Joey wore the most unique Halloween costume," implying it was just a tad "more unique" than someone else's. We'd say, "Joey wore a unique Halloween costume." It's giving credit where credit is due, so to speak.

If you're a writer, and not getting Bob Bly's newsletter, it's worth checking out - www.bly.com.

Here's a tip from Bob's ezine about dangling modifiers - you know, when you start a sentence talking about one person and slide in a reference that refers to someone else altogether... and then end the sentence referring back to the first individual.

For example:

WRONG: "As a policyholder, I want you to know that you can reduce your premiums by 50% this year."

CORRECT: "As a policyholder, you can reduce your premiums by 50% this year."

Writers don't always like to focus on the technical end of desk-top publishing, but I figure - if you're planning to create a document in Word - it might as well look as good as you can make it.

Many of my clients didn't know how to use the built-in tools in Word, so I created a mini-tutorial with step-by-step instructions on how to format a Word document or flyer.

To view the free Word tutorial, please visit my Word Tutorial Squidoo lens.

The correct usage is "I will try to fix it" rather than "I will try and fix it."

While the latter usage now has its foot in the door in more relaxed writing, when you're writing in a more formal situation, "try to" is the right version to use.

A word that ends with a silent "e" can present a challenge when you try to make a new word by adding a suffix after it (letters added to the end of a word).

For example, when you want a noun to become an adjective and vice versa, do you keep the "e" or drop the "e"? It's easy to make a spelling mistake with these words because they look funny either way.

Does desire become "desireable" or "desirable?" One that catches me up sometimes is "saleable" versus "salable." Neither looks logical... so I usually have to look it up in my Collegiate Dictionary.

But now I have the rules... and here they are:

(1) When adding a suffix that starts with a vowel - such as ism, ing, able or ible - you drop the "e" as a general rule.

So judge becomes judging (not judgeing); come turns into coming (not comeing), the aforementioned sale is now salable (and not saleable); true becomes truism; desire turns into desirable; mistake is now mistaking... and so on.

(2) There's always an exception to spelling rules in English:

When the word ending with a silent "e" has a soft "ce" or "ge" ending and you want to add the suffix "able" or "ous" - then you get to keep the "e."

Examples are:
advantage > advantageous
change > changeable
enforce > enforceable
courage > courageous
notice > noticeable.

(3) If, however, you are adding "ing" to the present participle of verbs like "singe," "tinge," or "dye," you keep the final (silent) "e." Hence we have "singeing," "tingeing," "dyeing," and "eyeing." (This dyeing has to do with changing the color of something; when spelled "dying," it's a loss of life.)

(4) Then again, if your suffix begins with a consonant, you keep the silent "e." It works this way for endings such as "ment," "ful," "ly," and "ty." So you have encouragement, extremely, lonely, ninety and useful.

(5) EXCEPT for... acknowledgment, argument, duly, judgment and truly, where you drop the "e."

One rule - with at least 4 exceptions. I wonder who can remember them all?