Lucky Seven: English Errors
Stuff you should avoid when writing an article or an essay.
1. A lot is 2 words! - You wouldn’t spell “a few” as one word, why would you spell “a lot” as two? Possibly the most common mistake made by the younger generation and still the older. Believe it or not, some teachers still spell, and teach a lot as being 1 word!
Not saying you should argue with your teacher to prove that it is in fact two words, but just keep that in mind.
2. Homophones - Words that sound the same but have different meanings and are spelt differently. One of the most common mistakes is “Quite and quiet” or “there and their” Even though many of us know these rules, we still end up mixing the two up, so be very cautious.
3. Using a semicolon – The symbol is used when you want to join two completely unrelated sentences together. It can be a gray area at times, so if you’re not sure, stick with a comma. Also, there is a difference in the way it is written, compared to a colon. Keep your eyes peeled when editing your work for the mix up.
4. of and off - These two little buggers are one of the nastiest of them all. Unless you’re typing a document on Word, it is very easy to get these two words mixed up. If you’re not sure when or when not to use these, better hit the books.
5. its and it’s – Just as bad as mixing up “off and of.” Remember, its – is in possession. Example: Its tail wagged wildly.
it’s – is a contraction of “it is” Example: It’s getting cold, is short for, it is getting cold.
6. Stein!
- Words that usually have this suffix at the end, will have the “e” in front of the “i” when normally you’d expect it to be the other way around. Example: words like “piece, pierce, skies, etc all end with “ie.” However, watch out for the odd few which may end with “Stein” where the letters are swapped around to make “ei” instead of the usual “ie.”
A lot of places, names and some games have this ending of “ei.” Example: The author John Steinbeck or the role playing shoot em up game – Wolfenstein.
7. Watch your Tense! - You may get away with it when writing essays, or articles due to the situation, but will not when writing a novel or a short story. My advice? Choose a tense and stick to it. It’s either happening now, or it has already happened. State the setting nice and clear.
Liked it
23 Responses to “Lucky Seven: English Errors”
Leave a Reply
Click the icon to the left to subscribe to Writinghood with your favorite RSS reader.
Popular Articles
- Writing Very Short Articles Quickly
- Writing: Short Story Ideas That Keep Giving
- Five Online Aids for The Serious Writer
- What Makes a Good Writer?
- Ideas and Topics to Conquer Writers Block
- Looking Into Flash Fiction
- Memories are Made of This - Why Not Write Your Memoir?
- From Cents to Dollars
- The Amount of Detail You Should Aim to Put Into Your Writing
- Punctuation: Usage at a Glance
Popular Tags
-
advice
art
article
articles
Arts
author
Blog
books
Business
content
creative
creative writing
fiction
Flash fiction
freelance writing
friends
Google
Grammar
help
How To
ideas
Inspiration
Internet
Life
Literature
love
money
Novel
online
Online Writing
poetry
Publish
publishing
short story
story
success
tips
triond
views
write
writer
writer's block
Writers
Writers Resources
Writing
Recent Comments
- Doaa Abdelfattah: Congratulations, Louie. I really wish you the best. We will...
- Guy Hogan: Excellent. I could not have said it better. This is a well...
- ken bultman: Good one. I like the differentiating between moral and them...
- Guy Hogan: I can definitely agree with everything you say here. It too...
- PhoenixRox: Excellent tips. I do use my cellular phone to record my rand...
Share Your Writing Tips
September 21st, 2009 at 8:15 am
Thanks I’m really nincoompoop in english grammer. NIce article i like it.
September 21st, 2009 at 8:44 am
Very informative article. Thanks for sharing.
September 21st, 2009 at 8:54 am
You’re quite right, or is it quiet?
September 21st, 2009 at 10:26 am
Good work. I often get confused when using the semi colon sometimes. Thanks for this article.
September 21st, 2009 at 11:00 am
Grammar is very important when writing and I see that you have great command of it. This is a great manual for those writers who have trouble using these words.
September 21st, 2009 at 11:32 am
Many native English speakers have trouble with grammar, or they tend to forget and get confused. Writing is both a skill and an art form, so this is helpful, though just the tip of the iceberg.
September 21st, 2009 at 12:13 pm
thank you teacher.
September 21st, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Fortunately, I have a pretty good grasp of these rules. I noted that you have the word “skies” listed in the “ie” versus “ei” – it doesn’t really count in that rule since it is the plural of a word which ends in “y”. The rule there is to change the “y” to “i” and add “es”.
But the best rule of thumb is the old rhyme
I before E, except after C
Or when pronunced as an A
As in “neighbor” or “weigh”
That still doesn’t encompass words like stein, but a good way to remember those oddities is that the words are usually opposite of what you might think. That is if it SOUNDS like an I, the E actually comes first (i.e. STEIN), whereas if it sounds like an E, the I comes first (i.e. PIECE)
September 21st, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Great article!
September 21st, 2009 at 4:18 pm
I love the differences between American English and English too! Great article!
September 21st, 2009 at 4:51 pm
I agree with Lotash there is a massive difference between the two, take it from one who has to adjust lol I always enjoy reading your work, love how you always cleverly add humor into it!
September 21st, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Great guide for all writers. I have a hard time with semicolons. I’m never really sure when to use them in my sentences.
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:51 am
Thanks guys, good to recieve great feedback! Will get to you shortly.
Max
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:59 am
Like a breath of fresh air; I thought no one cared about good sentence construction and grammar any more. Glad you’ve gone to the trouble to present your views and to provide useful information to tiro writers.
I’ve recently put up a video on Storytelling. My son then talked me into putting together some written content. Unfortunately the latter became a little garbled (words became lost or changed – my son needs your rules) but I think you’ll find it worth a look.
The link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?V=9hx8BeTEQc
Regards,
Tom Ware.
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:23 am
Great post! A great guide indeed!
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:28 pm
I really liked your article. It’s very clear and true. Thanks for sharing!
September 23rd, 2009 at 12:50 am
Loved this!!! Keep it up. I have never read any of your work before but I am going to start now!
September 24th, 2009 at 7:00 am
It’s always nice to be reminded of these. I sometimes tend to get lost with punctuations and especially tenses. Great share, thanks!
September 24th, 2009 at 8:01 am
nice post. I fall on number seven. always mixing tenses.
September 26th, 2009 at 2:12 am
Nice artcle. Very helpful.
September 26th, 2009 at 9:29 am
Thanks for reminding me of these basic grammar mistakes. Great work.
September 26th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
i wish i had meant rather met
u muchly i mean much
earlier
some say would better say
met u back
as the person admits grammer mer
meaning grammar
i to am an inc omp whatever that adds on to
poop
perhaps
pardon me today I’m a bittly more humurus
pl collect spelling
ah correkt it toooooooooooo or2222222222
October 17th, 2009 at 6:11 am
Very informative. Reminds me of those simple rules that sometimes I tend to overlook. Kudos!!!