Common Writing Errors in English Grammar

Common Writing Errors in English Grammar

Hey everyone! Welcome to my blog, where I teach you ways to make money online and become a freelancer. 

In today's blog, I'm going to go over eight of the most common mistakes that people make in written English and a lot of these mistakes are the reason that many of you are not passing your transcription exams. 

These are all very important to know if you want to improve your English writing skills in your personal and professional life.

 

Capitalization and Punctuation

Now capitalization and punctuation are two huge topics to cover. I do cover them quickly in this blog but I would like to do two blogs that are just on these topics. 

So the common mistake number one is it's or its. Many English speakers get confused about when to use it's or its. This is even a common mistake for native English speakers. 

So the rule is you use an apostrophe with it's only when the word means it is or it has. Without the apostrophe, it means belonging to it. 

Example: Incorrect it's my birthday tomorrow because this should be it is. You have to have the apostrophe it's it is my birthday tomorrow 

And here another example. The dog was wagging its tail. Now one trick is to try to say if you can see it with it is if it makes sense so if I said the dog was wagging its tail it doesn't make sense so it has to be the dog was wagging its tail without the apostrophe. 


So this is for example the girl was walking her dog. She's a dog, the girl's dog, and this is the dog's tail. The tail belongs to the dog so that's when we use it without the apostrophe. 

 

Difference between THERE and THEIR

Okay, So there ortherer are homophones. This means although they sound the same they are spelt differently and have different uses knowing the difference between these three is essential. 

When transcribing so the first one is the possessive case of the pronoun they meaning belonging to them. So example the boys left their bikes at school because the bikes belong to the boys it's their bikes Carly and Joe are bringing their computers to school tomorrow.

So just like before we had it's without the apostrophe and that was also the possessive this is the same the dog's tail it's tail this is the boy's bikes their bikes and you spell it like this.

 

The next one is there like this there is an adverb. That means in or at that place. So the example is Karen at the cinema, No she is going there tomorrow. so she is going to that place tomorrow there is also used as a pronoun introducing the subject of a sentence or clause examples there is a chance I will win the prize there are two boys in my dance class, okay so this is when we use their there.


The next one is there and this is the easiest because there is a contraction of the words they and R so there mean they are going skiing tomorrow afternoon they are going skiing she said that they're not coming tomorrow. 

 

So if you can replace the therewith they are that's a good hint that you should use an apostrophe and spell it like this they are okay. 

The third common error is people forgetting about the third person as the third person singular normally in the present tense we add s to the end of the verb in the third person for he she it. 

 

EXAMPLE:  

He loves Italian food. 

She drinks tea before bed.

It looks like it's going to rain tomorrow. 

Make sure to put the s don't put he love Italian food. He loves so in the present tense we also have some rules.

If the verb ends in SS x CH SH or the letter O. we add es in the third person. 

So Mary kisses the man on his cheek we have to put es because this ends with SS. 

The mechanic fixes cars every Sunday it ends in X, So yes the cat goes into the house.

He watches TV every evening.


If the verb ends in a consonant plus y we remove the Y and add IES in the third person. 

 

Examples: 

She carries the books to her car. So carries because it ends with a Y we have to replace that with IES. carries the same with study the boy's studies for school every night. Study becomes studies also important to form the negative in the present tense. 

 

We use the auxiliary do not the only variation is in the third-person where we use does not and does has es so, for example, I do not go to nightclubs I don't go to nightclubs but if it's she he or it. 

 

We would say she does not study at home she doesn't study at home not she does or she doesn't okay and also note that the verb study remains the same 

We only modify the auxiliary verb when forming the negative. We don't put an s on the end of the verb in the negative form. So you don't say she does not studies you just say she does not study this stays the same.

 

 

Difference between YOU and YOU'RE

Another one is your and you're. Again there are also Homophones which means again that although they sound the same they are spelt differently and have different uses.

You're is a contraction for you are just like they're they are.

You're going to bring the books to the office later. 

I'm talking on the phone and you're being too loud for me to hear. ( All of these you are and you're is a possessive pronoun ).

 

So we don't use the apostrophe and thee please bring your books to class with you tomorrow. 

I want them to finish their homework and I want you to eat your dinner.


So these are all possessive my books, his books, her books, your books not our books.

 

 

Difference between TO and TOO 

Again another one that's very common people makes mistakes with too or TOO. Can be a preposition we're going to the store. TO can indicate an infinitive when it comes before a verb. 

We want to go with you tomorrow night. Ok, the button is an adverb. that can mean excessively when it comes before an adjective or adverb. 

So I ate too much pasta for dinner which means I ate more than I should have excessively. 

TOO is also a synonym for ''also''. So, I ate too much at dinner too. 

So let's say your little brother says, I ate too much dessert and you say me too. It means me also, as well, I also ate too much. 

Then TWO is the easiest one it's simply the number 2. 

I had two slices of pizza. 

She wrote two books last year. okay, you must remember to use Xillia are verbs and negative sentences and questions. 

What our exile years verbs easily are verbs are the verbs B does have will when they are followed by another verb the full verb to form a question and negative sentence a compound tense or the passive so a lot of people might forget these words. 

So for example how you spell that word or where you go tomorrow you have to say how do you spell that word where will you go tomorrow. 

So do not forget to put these auxiliary verbs especially when you're doing questions or negative sentences. 

More Example, I now drink coffee every morning you'd say I don't drink coffee. Every morning do not he drive to the party last night. You have to start with the axillary. did he drive to the party last night?.

Another incorrect she not angry you have to say she isn't angry. She is not angry. 

Now capitalization rule number one. Always capitalize the first word of a sentence. 

The woman is going to finish her taxes. 

Why is he talking to you like that? 

So you always start with the capital rule number two capitalized names and other proper nouns.

Examples: 

My favourite singer is Justin Bieber.  You'd have to capitalize the name, Justin Bieber. 

Donald Trump is a controversial person. Donald and Trump, you would capitalize both of those because it's a name. 

Always capitalized proper nouns in English. A proper noun is a specific, not a generic name for a particular person place, or thing. 

Proper nouns are always capitalized in English no matter where they fall in a sentence. Name of cities, countries, nationalities, companies, religion and political parties are also proper nouns. so you should capitalize them too. 

So we have some examples of common nouns: girl, city, day, month, nationality, religion, none of these are capitalized but the proper nouns which is the specific noun that all of these are capitalized. 

A specific noun or proper noun for a girl ''Mary'', so would be capitalized Madrid capitalized Monday, March Moroccan Muslim okay all of these you have to capitalize. 

Because they're all proper nouns. Some more sentence examples 

Jack is Christian but his wife is Jewish. 

Sarah works at Ford in Paris France. So Ford is a company so we would capitalize that.

The first word of a quote when a quote is a complete sentence. So for example, if you're transcribing something and they say Joe asked do you want to come to the conference tomorrow? 

Lauren answered, ''yes'' I would love to because this inside the quote is a complete sentence.

Do you want to come to the conference tomorrow? That's a complete question. You will and then after it says asked you put a comma you have the quotes and then you capitalize the first letter.

Do you want to come? and then Lauren answered yes, I would love to again this is a complete sentence. so you would capitalize the beginning of the quote. 

 

Quotation Marks

Very important the last one we're going to talk about in this particular blog is quotation marks do commas and periods go inside or outside quotation marks commas and periods always go inside the quotation marks 

In American English dashes, colons, and semicolons almost always go outside the quotation marks. 

Question marks and exclamation marks sometimes go inside and sometimes stay outside. 

So for example, James said comma and then the quote. 

I hate meetings that run late. 

You'll note that the period is inside the quotation marks. 


Now in British English, it's the other way around but for most of these transcription companies they want you to follow American English guidelines and so that would mean you would put the period or the comma inside the quotation. 

 

And the quotation is at the end and then you would have space and then you would start the next letter capital letter of your next sentence. 

 

So quotations and capitalization, if you're quoting a complete sentence you should start the quote with a capital letter even if the quote is placed in the middle of a sentence. 

 

So the actual saying she read was ''Time heals all wounds'' Because this is a complete sentence you would start it with a capital letter even though it's in the middle of or near the end of this sentence. 

If you're quoting a phrase or a part of a sentence, don't start the quote with a capital letter. 

 

For Example, She called them boring rude, and cruel and she stormed out of the room. 

So boring rude and cruel is not a complete sentence it's just three adjectives. So you would have this in lowercase not capitalized.

You can take quotes put the quotes around it and because that is what she's saying and then you would continue the rest of the sentence. does that make sense? 

I hope so. 

 

EXERCISE 

So now we're gonna do a little test based on all the stuff that we've just gone through and see if how much you know we're gonna fix these statements and write your answers in the comments. 

01. It's going to be a beautiful day tomorrow too. 

02. My dog is playing with its toy it's so cute though.

03. lets's go to the park Over there it looks nice. 

04. Have you seen the car they forgot where they parked? 

05. He loved eating pizza with pepperoni. 

06.She goes shopping every Tuesday. 

07. I know want to go to her party, not like her. 

08. How you make soup I don't know-how?

09. My birthday is in January I'm going to celebrate a trip to Paris in France.

10. My best friend is Christian but I am Catholic. 


So, if you you want to answer in the comments that's great. if or even just answer a couple of them, if you have time. 

So that is all for this first part of my blog. There will be more blogs for people who are not native English speakers and maybe people who have a lower level of English. 

Because if you have a decent level of English you should know all of this stuff. Maybe there are a few things you might get confused but most of this stuff you should know. 

I'm hoping that these writing mistakes will help you when your next transcription exam. 

There are lots of things that you need to know lots of Homophones and all sorts of other things that can be difficult. 

English is not the easiest language to learn make small little errors and I thought this might be able to help you when you're doing your next exam to keep these things in mind especially with how to capitalize letters and also with the quotation marks and then other common words that are misspelt.

 

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