In this case, it would be best to divide your thoughts into cohesive sentences. This could be a result of trying to fit in a lot of information in a single sentence. On the flip side, some people often create sentences that are wordy and lack punctuations. But not this time.”Ĭorrect: “He was always conscious of everything he did, but not this time.”Įxplanation: “But not this time” doesn’t have a subject it’s a clause that depends on the preceding clause to be a complete thought. Incorrect: “He was always conscious of everything he did. The latter then becomes a sentence fragment. The second sentence has the subject “It,” the linking verb “is,” and a predicate nominative “a cake.”Īnother example is putting a period between independent and dependent clauses. If one is missing, it’s a dependent clause, which isn’t a sentence at all.Įxplanation: “A cake” is only the subject it doesn’t contain a verb or a predicate. A sentence consists of a subject and a predicate, forming one independent clause. Sentence fragments are phrases that look like a complete thought but aren’t. The same mistakes also apply to “its” and “it’s.” In the case of “reign” vs “rein,” the only solution would be to remember what these words mean. Incorrect: “There going to eat they’re pizza the pizza their later.”Ĭorrect: “They’re going to eat their pizza there later.”Įxplanation: “They are going to eat their pizza (they own the pizza) there (in that place) later.” “They’re” is a shortened “they are,” and “you’re” is a shortened “you are.” Both “their” and “your” are nouns that showing ownership, while “there” refers to a place.Īn example of how one can mix up these words: People can avoid most of these mistakes by paying attention to the apostrophe, which can indicate a contraction of two separate words. Some examples are there vs they’re vs their, your vs you’re, or reign vs rein. Homophones are words that sound the same but differ in spelling, which is why they’re easy to mix up. In cases like the examples above and more, what’s important is the ability to identify the subject. In this example, the closest subject to the verb is “brother,” which is singular. Incorrect: “My friends or my brother are coming over to eat dinner with me tonight.”Ĭorrect: “My friends or my brother is coming over to eat dinner with me tonight.”Įxplanation: When there are two or more subjects connected with “either/neither,” and “or/nor,” you base the verb on the subject closest to it. Incorrect: “My brother and his dog is in my house at the moment.”Ĭorrect: “My brother and his dog are in my house at the moment.”Įxplanation: Both the brother and the dog are the subjects, hence the verb should be plural. Some mistakes could stem from a more complicated sentence structure. Making a mistake here could be a simple oversight or if you’re unsure if a subject is singular or plural (e.g. The verb should then take a singular form, which is “likes” in this case. Incorrect: “My friend like the jewelry store down the street.”Ĭorrect: “My friend likes the jewelry store down the street.”Įxplanation: The subject here is “friend,” which is singular. This can be quite easy to remember in simple sentences, such as the following: Plural nouns, on the other hand, take plural verbs. ![]() ![]() Its basic rule is that singular nouns utilize singular verbs. Subject-verb agreement is one of the earliest lessons in grammar, yet many people find it easy to mess up. Start by reading the most common grammatical errors below. If you want to be an influencer, for example, using proper grammar is a must in all the content you publish.Īs long as the content is crucial to your business, you should know which mistakes to avoid. However, they’re a definite no-no when you’re trying to make a living off writing and your image. The problem today is that slangs and bad grammar are somewhat acceptable in a social setting. The short answer is yes – if you want the power that comes with strong communication skills. When students go out into the real world, though, is it still all that important?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |