English grammar mistakes are common. When you are speaking, it can be easy to get away with making a grammar error or two.
As a student, you must be very careful to avoid making mistakes in your writing. Mistakes can cause your readers to question your credibility and ultimately whether they should trust you.
To help you write better English, let’s take a look at 10 common English grammar mistakes that you should avoid.
1. Adjective Order
When using more than one adjective to describe something, be sure to put the adjectives in the right order! With “opinion” adjectives (beautiful, terrible, etc.), the general rule is that the order is: Quantity/number, quality/opinion, size, age, shape, colour, proper adjective (nationality), material/purpose.
For example A big furry red dog
2. Using “Affect” and “Effect” Incorrectly
Affect is a verb. It means to have an impact on or to produce a change in something. Effect is a noun that refers to the result of an action. The effect of using the wrong word can be severe it can change the entire meaning of your sentence!
3. Mixing up “your” and “you’re” For example if you write “your going to the store,” this is wrong because you should use “you’re,” which is a contraction of “you are.” Instead of saying “you’re” too often in your writing, try substituting it with the phrase “you are,” which will help prevent the common mistake of using the wrong word.
4. Using improper punctuation with quotation marks.
The rule is that periods and commas always go inside quotation marks, while colons and semicolons always go outside quotation marks. In addition, question marks belong inside quotation marks only when they are part of the quoted material. When a sentence includes both a question mark and a quotation mark, the question mark goes outside only if it does not apply to the quoted material (e.g., He asked her, “Will you get me an apple?”).
5 Who vs Whom
Who is used as the subject of a sentence or clause? Whom is used as the object of a verb or preposition? To figure out which one to use, try using “he” or “him” instead. If it works with “he,” use “who.” If it works with “him,” use “whom.” For example, Who/Whom do you think will win? (Who will win?) Who/Whom did you call? (I called him.)
6. Confusing “lie” and “lay”
The past tense of lie is lay: I lie down on the bed every night before I go to sleep; I lay down last night before
7. Confusing its and it’s
The possessive form of “it” is “its,” and the contraction for “it is” is “it’s” Confuse them and your readers will notice the error!
I hope this helps you avoid a few common grammar pitfalls, and I sincerely encourage you to avoid all these errors grammatical errors. English is one of the most spoken languages in the world, so we need to take time to brush up on our grammar skills.
