GRAMMAR CHEAT SHEET "To" and "too," "affect" and "effect," ...
These are errors which occur because two words sound similar or the same, but are spelled differently and have different meanings. Some of the more common soundalike errors: "To" and "too" "Too" means "also" or "to a great extent." "To" means "in the direction of" or indicates an infinitive. You go to the store; if someone else goes along with you, then she goes too. If fifteen people go with you, that's far too many to take one car. "Accept" and "except" To "accept" something means to receive that thing; you accept a reward, you accept blame, you accept a FedEx package. "Except" means "with the exclusion of" or "but;" for instance, "I work every day except Saturday and Sunday." Just think: E is for Except, E is for Exclusion. "Affect" and "effect" These two words are entirely different parts of speech. "Affect" is a verb: "Your insults do not affect me." "Effect" is a noun; that
is, it is an actual thing. Slings and arrows have an effect on me; they injure me, and the injuries are things. "You cannot affect me; your idle chatter has no effect on me."
"Allowed" and "aloud" "Allowed" means "permitted," as in "I am not allowed to go to the party tomorrow." "Aloud" means "out loud," as in "Read the book aloud." The word "aloud" has the word "loud" in it, which makes these two easy to remember. "Advise" and "advice" These two words are also different parts of speech. "Advise" is a verb; you advise someone to do something. "As your lawyer, I advise you to keep your mouth shut." It's pronounced "advize." "Advice" is something that you give someone, or someone gives you. "I did not follow my lawyer's advice, and now I'm in trouble." "Discreet" and "discrete" These words sound the same, but are completely unrelated. "Discreet" means
"unobtrusive" or "with good judgement," as in "If you are going to follow someone, it's best to be discreet." A person who is discreet shows discretion, as in "Discretion is the better part of valor." "Discrete," on the other hand, means "made up of distinct parts," as in "A telephone has three discrete parts: a handset, a base, and a cord." "Lose" and "loose" "Lose" is pronounced "looze." It means "to misplace," as in "I always lose my car keys," or "to be defeated, as in "We will lose the game without Bob. "Loose" means "not tight" ("This shirt is too loose on me"), or "not confined" ("the dog got loose when the door on his kennel broke"). "Site" and "sight" and "cite" "Site" is a place. "Sight" is having to do with vision. "We went to the crash site" means "the place where the crash happened;" "the enemy is in sight" means "the enemy is visible." This is a web site, not a web sight. "Cite," which is pronounced just like "site," is entirely different; it means to quote, as in "Can you cite any studies that prove what you're saying?"
"Then" and "than" "Then" has to do with time; "We went to the store, then we went to the movies" or "When you finish your homework, then you can go outside." On the other hand, "than" is a conjunction used in comparisons: "He is older than she is," or "that is easier said than done."
"Its" and "it's," "you're" and "your," ...
"You're" vs "your," "they're" vs "there" and "their" If a pronoun has an apostrophe in it, it's a contraction. "You're" means "you are," always. "Your" means "belonging to you." The same is true of "they're" and "their." "They're" has an apostrophe; it is a contraction. It means "they are." "Their" means "belonging to them." "There" means "somwhere that is not here."
"Its" and "it's"
This is probably the single most common grammatical mistake on earth. People get confused about this one because they remember a rule from their childhood days: possessive nouns get an apostrophe. "That is Bob's car." "That is the horse's barn." Problem is, the word "it" is not a noun. It's a pronoun! Pronouns never, ever, ever get an apostrophe to indicate possession. Think about it: You don't say "mi'ne" or "hi's" or "her's"--and you don't say "your's" or "it's" to indicate possession. "It's" means "it is" or "it has." If you get confused, take out "it's" and put in "it is." If the sentence makes no sense, don't use the apostrophe.
"A group of people is going to the movies," "a bunch of marbles is on the floor" ...
The subject of a sentence and the verb of a sentence must agree with one another: "A person is smart; people are dumb, stupid panicky animals." This can get a little complicated, though, when there are prepositional phrases between the subject and the verb: "A bunch of people spells trouble." The subject of a sentence is never found in a prepositional phrase; if a noun appears after a word like of, the one thing you can
be sure of is that it's not the subject. Collective nouns such as "group" and "bunch" and "pile" are singular, not plural; the plural versions are groups, bunches, and piles. So you would say "A group is going" or "Two groups are going." When a prepositional phrase follows the subject, the verb must still agree with the subject, not the prepositional phrase. So you would say "A group of people is going to the movies," not "a group of people are going to the movies"--the phrase 'of people' is a prepositional phrase, and is not the subject of the sentence.
"I couldn't care less," "nothing fazes me," ...
These are errors which occur because two words may be confused, or because someone has misstated a common expression and hasn't really thought about it. Some of these may involve soundalike errors as well. For example: It's "A lot," never "alot." "A lot" is two words, as in "We have a lot of food in the kitchen" or "Florida is being hammered by a lot of hurricanes this season." It means "A large quantity." You would never say "abunch;" it's two words--"a bunch." Same thing.
It's "All right," never "alright." "All right" means "okay." Literally, "all is right." It's not one word. It's "Lo and behold," not "low and behold." The word "lo!" is a Middle English expression of surprise. "Lo and behold" is kind of the equivalent of saying "Well, hey, look at that!" It's "Nothing fazes me," not "nothing phases me." To "faze" is to disturb or frighten. "She was unfazed" means "she retained her composure." "He was unphased" means "he was not made of a number of waveforms that were in synchronization." Big difference, folks. "I couldn't care less," not "I could care less." "I could care less" means "I do care." It would be possible for me to care less,
because I already care. If I do not care at all--if the amount I care about something is zero--then it would be impossible for me to care any less, because I can't care about something less than a zero amount...I couldn't care less. It's "etc," not "ect." "Etc" is an abbreviation for "et cetera" (two words), which is Latin for "and so forth." "Et" means "and," which is why "etc" is sometimes written "&c". "Etc" is correct. "&c" is correct but archaic. "Ect" is not, never has been, and never will be correct. The abbreviations "ie" and "eg" do not mean the same thing! You use "ie" when you mean "in other words." It's Latin for "id est," which means "that is." For example: "He is a businessman; ie, he makes his money by operating a business." On the other hand, "eg" is used to mean "for example." It's Latin for "exempli gratia." "I do not like spectator sports--eg, football and baseball." For example: eg. In other words: ie.
"Insure" and "ensure" do not mean the same thing either! "Ensure" means "to make sure of." Doublecheck your math on your tax return to ensure you don't get an embarrassing phone call from the IRS. "Insure," on the other hand, means "to provide insurance for," you insure your house in order to ensure that you won't be financially ruined if it burns down. To be caught "between the devil and the deep blue sea" does not mean "between two unattractive options." It means "to be in a position where you have no room to manuver." The 'devil' on a wooden sailing ship is the main spar of the ship--a brace that runs the whole length of the ship from front to back, around which the frame of the ship is built. There is a very narrow space--typically less than 3' high--between a ship's devil and the bottom of the hull; this was sometimes the space where the most lowly members of a ship's crew slept-"between the devil and the deep blue sea." It's a very, very tiny space. "You have piqued my interest," not "you have peaked my interest" or "you have peeked my interest."
The word "pique" (pronounced like "peek") means "to excite or arouse." "You have piqued my interest" means "you have aroused my interest"--that is, I wasn't interested before, but now I am. A group is a "clique," not a "click" "Clique" is pronounced like "click." However, the meaning is completely different. "Clique" was originally a French word; hence the weird spelling. Something that's stylish is "chic," not "sheik" "Chic" is another confusing French import. It's pronounced like "sheik" but means "elegant, stylish, or sophisticated." It's "whet my appetite," not "wet my appetite." "Whet" means "sharpen." A tool that sharpens a knife is called a "whetstone." To "whet" one's appetite means to sharpen one's appetite--"That appetizer really whetted my
appetite!" To "wet" one's appetite means to make it soggy.
"Data" and "datum," "phenomena" and "phenomenon," ...
English has a long history of borrowing words from other languages--many of which don't follow standard English rules for pluralization. As a result, there are many English words which are normally plural, but don't look plural because they don't end in the letter S. A partial list: Singular Plural Datum Data Phenomenon Phenomena Stimulus Stimuli Criterion Criteria Die Dice Graffito Graffiti Medium Media Stratum Strata Nucleus Nuclei Crisis Crises So for example, you would never properly say "The data shows I'm right" (the correct form is "The data show I'm right"), and you would never properly say "The media is becoming increasingly right-wing" (but rather "The media are becoming increasingly rightwing"). "Media" in this sense means "all the media used to distribute information--eg, newspapers, television, and radio."
Debris is the only English noun with no plural. An alumnus is a graduate of a school. When you're talking about a group of graduates, you use alumni if all the graduates are male or if there's a mix of male and female graduates; if all the graduates are female, the proper form is alumnae. The plural of mouse is mice only if you're talking about rodents. If you're talking about a computer mouse, the accepted plural is mouses. The Middle English root of "ruthless" is "ruthe," meaning "compassion." It has survived in the Modern English ruthless, but its opposite, ruthful ("compassionate") is considered archaic and is rarely used.