Top 10 grammatical errors that you can avoid
Stop Making These 10 Grammatical Errors
Each and every day, we make many grammatical mistakes which more than often gets overlooked. It's high time that we should buckle up and avoid making these mistakes.
Bad grammar is a distraction, and as such, it often creates a negative impression on others. If you happen to be a writer, and you overlook a few grammatical mistakes, then God bless you! Each and every mistake that you will make will yank your readers out of your piece, which will lead to an unpleasant reading experience.
Though these errors aren't deliberate, yet they repeatedly occur, among us, writers not excluded and they make your pieces weak and not to mention, dull and lacklustre.
Only knowing the rules of grammar is not enough; what you need to do is to make smart word choices and construct the sentences in such a way that will not only flow smoothly but is also evident, coherent and consistent. If you learn the rules of grammar, the rest assured that you could make your piece shine, provided you adopt the best practices in the field.
Presented below are the top ten grammatical errors that frequently happen or are ignored –
- COMMAS. It is the most common punctuation mark and yet the most misused. That's because the rules regarding commas are very scarce giving full reign to the writers' as to how they use it. Keep in mind that to strike the right balance; it's best to be consistent in how you use commas.
- THE TENSES. There are much more tenses beyond the usual tenses beyond the average ‘past, present and future'. Though worth knowing, it must be kept in mind not to mix them up with each other.
- ADJECTIVES vs.
ADVERBS.
Again, another rule of grammar that gets avoided often. It's best that you should make sure that you use the adverbs to modify the verbs and the adjectives to modify nouns.
- HOMOPHONES. Homophones more often than not sneak past the eyes of the editors. What's more, there are many youngsters who are not taught proper homophones. They may be conventional or advanced, but it pays a lot to learn their proper usage along with being able to proofread with caution and care.
- PUNCTUATION MARKS. It just won't do if you end up putting punctuation marks everywhere. Do try to take time out for learning when and where to use it properly.
- SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT. The sentence's subject needs to match the verb, but due to verb conjugation, this is hard for those people who are not native English speakers or those who are just learning to speak the language.
- CAPITALIZING PROPER NOUNS. Never capitalise freely any words which you think are important. Because that is just wrong. ‘How to Look Best' is one such example. See how it looks?
- CONSISTENCY OF TENSE AND EDITING. Try to avoid the errors in any sentence as they come upon as shoddy and unprofessional.
- SHOULD'VE, COULD'VE, WOULD'VE. There are many people who think "ve" means "of", but it's not. It's short for "have".
- CONSISTENCY IS THE KEY. The rules of grammar don't change anything. Rather as a writer, you will always be challenged to make decisions about how to construct your sentences and paragraphs. The key is always to be consistent.
This list of grammatical errors is only the tip of the iceberg. There are much more grammatical mistakes that are being made and are often overlooked. Have you observed any grammatical errors? What are the best writing practices that you want to share?