Common mistakes

[Carl East]

I don't know about anyone else, but I make the same mistakes over and over again. Such as there instead of their, or their instead of there etc.

Is there a simple way of remembering the difference, a way that sticks out in one's mind.

It seems to me that no matter how well I progress in mastering the English language I still end up making the same stupid mistakes, and it's pissing me off.

I mean earlier for instance I wrote a sentence in a new story of mine, and WORD underlined it. So I read it back to myself expecting to find some sort of typo, but I couldn't see anything wrong with it. In fact the more I read it the more frustrated I was that WORD wouldn't accept it as a viable sentence. In the end I had to change the wording slightly, before it would accept the line.

I guess what I want are writers tips on avoiding these errors in the first place, so any contribution you can make to this thread would be appreciated.

Thx

Carl

 

[Colleen Thomas]

I have a post itnote on the screen with the ones I most commonly flub

 

[Guest]

I'm too busy generating random numbers to speak.

 

[cantdog]

I taught English grammar. And German grammar, and French grammar, for that matter.

I picked it all up so long ago. All we did, though, was Warriner's.

We did that damn book in the fourth grade, the fifth grade, and when it came to the sixth, I said, disgustedly, to Mr. Adams, "We did this already!"

He told me we'd be doing it again all through school, including senior year in high school.

Same book, different edition.

It's got it all. For American English

 

[impressive]

I taught English grammar. And German grammar, and French grammar, for that matter.

I have a PC on one of my stories commending me for my "grammer and spelling."

 

[Guest]

Ones liek taht and teh are teh three I do teh most.

(But they are typos, and my brain won't do them any other way. Spelling wise, I've got pretty good. Unless I get a really long word. )

As for when Word underlines a sentence with a green squiggle, I usually ignore it, unless it's a passive sentence and I've got too many of them. Or, the fragment that needs revising is just glaringly wrong. Sometimes Word is just plain wrong, and can stifle creativity.

It didn't.

It doesn't liek sentences liek taht (oops, I did it again ).

Lou

 

[scheherazade_79]

there - opposite of here, look out for the there

they're - apostrophe stands for the missing 'a' as in they are

their - notice that heir is in it. An heir is someone who'll soon have something that belongs to them



As for to, too, two...

'two' is very rarely a problem. It's 'to' and 'too' that people confuse.

Notice that 'too' has one 'o' too many.

 

[eric shawn listo]

Ones liek taht and teh are teh three I do teh most.

(But they are typos, and my brain won't do them any other way. Spelling wise, I've got pretty good. Unless I get a really long word. )

As for when Word underlines a sentence with a green squiggle, I usually ignore it, unless it's a passive sentence and I've got too many of them. Or, the fragment that needs revising is just glaringly wrong. Sometimes Word is just plain wrong, and can stifle creativity.

It didn't.

It doesn't liek sentences liek taht (oops, I did it again ).

Lou

I liek the new AV--shouldn't you be writing something--as for me --I'm always writing cock for dick

 

[Guest]

I liek the new AV--shouldn't you be writing something--as for me --I'm always writing cock for dick

LOL! Thanks.

Yes, I should, but my fingers don't want to do taht.

Still on topic ( ), I always use to have a problem with conscious and conscience, but I seem to have them licked now, unlike liek.

 

[eric shawn listo]

LOL! Thanks.

Yes, I should, but my fingers don't want to do taht.

Still on topic ( ), I always use to have a problem with conscious and conscience, but I seem to have them licked now, unlike liek.

Sorry to get off topic. I must confess to an i before e problem or is it e before i except after...but I guess that's spelling so I'm usless today.

 

[tolyk]

My biggest problem in writing is passive sentances, and I don't really know much about them, but Word tells me that I use them a lot.

My second biggest problem is switching tenses.. I'm horrible about that.


Ps - Love the new AV Lou

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

I don't notice the ones that I do, or I wouldn't do them.

A common mistake that I do notice is how EVERYONE ALL OVER THE NET will loose their way, when they are trying to spell lose.

 

[rgraham666]

I just turn the effen grammar checker off. And I spell check once before I post.

Computers are stupid and the people who program them are generally not much brighter.

Are you going to let Bill Gates tell you how to write?

 

[Guest]

Computers are stupid and the people who program them are generally not much brighter.

<sarcasm>Thanks.</sarcasm>

(I added the tags, just in case you thought I meant it. )

P.S. Cheers, Tol.

 

[English Lady]

most of my problems are typos. I cannot type from as from first time, it always types out as form and so often ends up as os....God alone knows why *L*

As to the rest I'm not great but i tend to get there in the end *L*

 

[wildsweetone]

their - contains an 'eye' - their refers to people

there - contains 'here' - use opposite

they're - ' is for missing letter 'a' - they are

#

to - Go to hell!

too - That's way too big!

two - Two people kissed.

#

'i' before e except after 'c' (a general rule that is broken by weight and height).



I typo a fair amount too EL (hello by the way ). I think it's probably due to the rsi thing.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I mean earlier for instance I wrote a sentence in a new story of mine, and WORD underlined it. So I read it back to myself expecting to find some sort of typo, but I couldn't see anything wrong with it. In fact the more I read it the more frustrated I was that WORD wouldn't accept it as a viable sentence. In the end I had to change the wording slightly, before it would accept the line.

I guess what I want are writers tips on avoiding these errors in the first place, so any contribution you can make to this thread would be appreciated.

Thx

Carl

Carl, I hope you don't let yourself be dictated to by Grammarcheck. Frequently I am told that I have an error and 95% of the time I am correct or the error is in dialogue and deliberate. Even so, that means 5% of the time there might actually be an error so I always go over what it says. I spell well but not perfectly so I use spellcheck but. It won't catch most of the errors that are the subject of this thread so I proofread and edit carefully several times. There are certain spellings that give me trouble so I always keep a dictionary handy.

 

[Guest]

 

[Boxlicker101]

their - contains an 'eye' - their refers to people

there - contains 'here' - use opposite

they're - ' is for missing letter 'a' - they are

#

to - Go to hell!

too - That's way too big!

two - Two people kissed.

#

'i' before e except after 'c' (a general rule that is broken by weight and height).

That ditty goes: "I before E except after C or when pronounced "A" such as "neighbor" and "weigh". That's not correct though, because there are others such as "either", "neither" or some words of French derivative. Sometimes English sucks.

 

[Boota]

Never trust Word. It gives bad suggestions when something is already correct and misses obvious mistakes. The best thing to use it for is to look up the problem somewhere else. Word is always bitching at me about my sentence fragments, which I like and use on purpose.

 

[wildsweetone]

I usually use Rough Draft for drafting my writing, however one thing in Word's favour is that those little green and red underscores sure make me think and make me be specific in my choices to buck Bate's rules.

 

[lewdandlicentious]

there - opposite of here, look out for the there

they're - apostrophe stands for the missing 'a' as in they are

their - notice that heir is in it. An heir is someone who'll soon have something that belongs to them



As for to, too, two...

'two' is very rarely a problem. It's 'to' and 'too' that people confuse.

Notice that 'too' has one 'o' too many.

And Too is in addition to..............

As in: " I did that too. "

If someone else hasn't already said that below!!!!

 

[TheEarl]

The one that always nabs me is prescence instead of presence. Managing to train myself out of it now, just through sheer repetitive correction every time I type it.

The Earl

 

[Evil Alpaca]

WORD is just another of the diabolical tools in the evil Microsoft plot to establish Bill Gates as the owner of planet earth.

Any PC built after 1990 has the capacity to house an evil spirit. It's true. I'm sure I saw that somewhere.

My most frequent typo is when I'm trying to type "to the" really fast and wind up with "tot he," both of which are actually words and MS Word's spellcheck doesn't pick it up.

I'm also bad with run-on sentences and remembering to use the word "that" often enough (apparently).

That.

 

[MagicFingers]

It's i before e, except after c,w,h,f,r,s,v,n,l,d, & b

Sorry to get off topic. I must confess to an i before e problem or is it e before i except after...but I guess that's spelling so I'm usless today.

as in Weird, Weight, Weigh
Heir, height, heist, heinous,
Feign, Feisty,
Reign, rein, reive
Seize, seine, seismic, seidel, seiche,
Veil, vein,
Neigh, neighbor, neither
Leisure, lei,
Deify, deity,
Ceiling,
Beige, being.

It's the only rule I know that has more exceptions than inclusions.