Even more common grammar mistakes

Writing has to be done right in order to be respected. If you’re just throwing down ‘there’s or they’re’s’ any which where, no-one’s going to have a clue what you’re on about and will decide to move on to better things with their precious time. Like searching up obscure EPs on eBay and elongating their wishlist!

Anyway! Grammar mistakes happen to the best of us, so there’s no need to be ashamed; but hopefully looking out for some of the most common ones may help to avoid any glaring errors. A good proofread should sort most of the embarrassing ones out, and there’s already been some recommendations of other mistakes that may try to trip you up…

Overuse of adverbs

Adverbs, used to flavour up bland verbs by describing qualities of the action taken (quickly, nervously, regrettably etc.) are wonderful ways to do the aforementioned. However, too many chefs spoil the broth, and if too many adverbs are included within your body of text, you run the risk of cluttering up the text with redundancies.

There is even some discourse around avoiding the use of adverbs entirely, which many authors have different opinions of. It is a difficult line to draw as there is such a wide array of genres (and even types of novel) which do benefit from the use of adverbs – but a good rule of thumb is not to overdo it!

Misplaced apostrophies

Look, whether you are reading in between the lines to realise that this is more a ‘note to self’ than anything else – or not – apostrophe placement is one of those things that takes a lot of practise, especially for non-native speakers where there is likely to be a big difference between their written language and the conventions of a new one. 

Mainly, using an apostrophe is for one of two main reasons: to shorten a word, forming a contraction (do not into don’t, or does not into doesn’t, for example) or to show possession of an object (like Marina’s thimble, or Laura’s website). Simple enough so far, right? But apostrophes can also be used for plurals which is where a lot of their confusion lies.

Passive voice

When writing, the type and tone of voice used is often a very important decision, as it has the power to persuade, subtly give away hints about key topics or give an insight into characters. So using a passive tone of voice with actions happening to the characters, rather than them having the ability to influence their world. So instead of, ‘The car arrived, driven by Ben’, it would be better to write ‘Ben drove the car’.

Confusing adjectives with adverbs

Those pesky adverbs strike again! In cases such as these, it can be easy to mess up the normal running flow of a sentence by switching the order that they appear in. Though the sentence will still likely be decipherable, and does have its applications in specific scenarios, it goes against a lot of usual grammar conventions.

For example, the phrase ‘it was a real good show’ still holds the same meaning, but the grammatically correct phrase would be ‘it was a really good show’ – with the proper use of the adverb instead of the adjective. Again, this is something that comes with practise!

Gramatically correct yet?

That was a brief look at some common grammar mistakes that can sneak up on even the most seasoned of writers. Whether you write for business, pleasure, or any other reason, having a good understanding of grammar conventions – whether or not you choose to stick to them – can be very useful.