Entries Tagged 'grammar' ↓

Here are 3 common, but, easy mistakes to Avoid

Your – You’re

• Your refers to a person’s attributes e.g.
• You’re – short for You are

e.g.

You should try to improve your grammar.

You’re never going to believe this, but, you placed the apostrophe in the wrong place – again!

The simple step is to make sure you’re able to say you are.

For example, it is wrong to say:

You should try to improve you’re (you are) grammar

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From: James Thurber’s: Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s Guide to Modern English Usage. – Hope this is of help…

“The indefinite “one” is another source of trouble and is frequently the cause of disagreeable scenes. Such a sentence as “One loves one’s friends” is considered by some persons to be stilted and over-formalized, and such persons insist that “One loves his friends” is permissible. It is not permissible, however, because “one” is indefinite and “his” is definite and the combination is rhetorically impossible. This is known as hendiadys and was a common thing in Latin. Rare examples of it still exist and are extremely valuable as antiques, although it is usually unsafe to sit or lie down on one.”

You can find more extended excerpts here:

• Who and Whom

A full stop indicates a complete end to a sentence; a comma indicates a slight change in direction of the sentence. A comma can also be used to break up a sentence into different sub clauses.

When to Use a Comma.

1. Linking main clauses.

Keynes was an economist. Keynes was intelligent. Keynes was born in England

Each of these 3 sentences is grammatically correct, however, it makes for stilted reading. We can combine these 3 clauses into one sentence.

• Keynes was an intelligent economist, who was born in England.

2. After an introductory element of a sentence.

Monetarism is the study of Money supply. We could add an introductory sentence to this.

• Popularised by Milton Friedman, Monetarism is the study of Money Supply.

These introductory phrases are often known as prepositional phrases; it literally means, “to go before”.

• One more example: In many different countries, economists often fail to predict recessions.

3. Adding a subordinate clause at the end of a sentence.

A subordinate clause is a phrase that couldn’t make a sentence on it its own.

• Economists are very bad at predicting the future, although occasionally they get it right.

The first phrase is a sentence on its own, the last phrase adds to the initial statement, and so is a subordinate clause.

4. Parenthetical Elements in a sentence.

These involve words like “however”, “in fact”, “of course”, and “for example”. These words help to link a sentence together; they need a comma before and after.

• Economics is termed the dismal science, however, occasionally it can be fun to study Economics.

A common mistake, however, is to only include one comma after the “however,” and not before.

• The latest inflation news was disappointing, in fact, the Bank of England was very concerned.

5. Appositive.

This is a term used to rename a noun.

• John Maynard Keynes, Britain’s most famous economist, died in 1946.
• Economics, the study of scarcity, is growing in popularity.

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