I'm going to get all Grammar Girl on you here. Bear with me.
I'm not a grammar saint, but I'm nerdy enough to both laugh and nod my head at Eats, Shoots and Leaves. As a communications guy, it helps.
A few basic grammar mistakes have started to really bug me. I've see them more and more recently, especially on micro-blogging platforms like Twitter.
I know, I know, you're perfect. Feel free to skip this post if that's the case. For the record, I'm not perfect. I make mistakes too. There, I said it.
Still here? Ok, I'll begin. Here are 10 easy-to-avoid errors that I keep seeing:
- You Don't Need To Capitalize Something Just Because You Think It's Important.
- You're/your: "You're" is a contraction of you are. "Your" is possessive (it belongs to you).
- We're/were: "We're" is a contraction of we are. "Were" is the past tense of the word "be."
- Fewer/less: If you can count it, use "fewer." If you can't, use "less."
- It's/its: "It's" is a contraction of "it is" or "it has." "Its" is possessive.
- Accept/except: I'll make it simple. The "x" in "except" excludes things. Make sense? Accept it.
- "Action" is not a verb. Don't tell me you're going to "action" something.
- You were not "plurking" or "identing" or "powncing." You were making up new words (yes, I'm guilty of this one too).
- A lot/alot: "A lot" is English. "Alot" isn't.
- Hear/here: A hint: "hear" has "ear" in it.
Those are my current pet peeves. What are yours?
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