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10 Grammar Mistakes You Should Avoid [part 2] by TRWConsult(m): 5:49pm On Sep 22, 2015 |
Mistake 6: Incorrect use of subject pronouns INCORRECT: The owner was most kind to my wife and I as we toured the grounds. CORRECT : The owner was most kind to my wife and me as we toured the grounds. I is a subject pronoun form. It is correctly used as the subject of a verb. Its object form is me, which is used as the object of a verb or, as in this example, the object of a preposition (to). Not all English pronouns retain an object form. The pronouns that do have subject and object forms are he/him, she/her, we/us,they/them, and who/whom. Mistake 7: Inappropriate use of reflexive pronoun forms INCORRECT: Jack and myself built the company from scratch. CORRECT : Jack and I built the company from scratch. A pronoun that ends in -self or -selves is called a reflexive pronoun. This type of pronoun refers to a noun or personal pronoun that occurs elsewhere in the sentence. For example, “He cut himself shaving.” In this example, himself refers to the same person as the one meant by He. A typical error is to use a reflexive pronoun in place of a personal pronoun: INCORRECT: Thank you for everything you did for myself and my family. CORRECT : Thank you for everything you did for me and my family. Note: A more polite usage is to put me last in the phrase: Thank you for everything you did for my family and me. Mistake 8: Incorrect use of did instead of had in certain “if clauses” One use of the conjunction if is to introduce a clause that states an action that would have changed an outcome. For example, “If I hadn’t missed the train, I would be in London now.” A common error is to usedid instead of had, as in this headline: INCORRECT: [Celebrity] thinks he would be dead now if he didn’t give up alcohol and drugs CORRECT : [Celebrity] thinks he would be dead now if he hadn’t given up alcohol and drugs The person mentioned in the headline actually said (correctly), “I honestly don’t think I’d be alive if I hadn’t stopped drinking.” The tense required is the past perfect (had + past participle). Mistake 9: Incorrect irregular verb forms Most English verbs form the past and past participle by adding -ed to the base form. For example: walk, walked, (has) walked believe, believed, (has) believed jump, jumped, (has) jumped However, a few high-frequency verbs have irregular past forms, for example: run, ran, (has) run go, went, (has) gone come, came, (has) come Errors with irregular verb forms are becoming common in the media and in articles written by university graduates. Such errors are perhaps evidence that elementary school teachers no longer drill their students on the irregular verb forms. Here are typical errors: INCORRECT: Mary loves to read, has ran for office and has an articulate way of telling it like it is.—Biographical note, KZNU. CORRECT : Mary loves to read, has run for office and has an articulate way of telling it like it is. INCORRECT: Deluna-Martinez is alleged to have went into one student’s account and dropped that student’s classes.—News item, KRCR CORRECT : Deluna-Martinez is alleged to have gone into one student’s account and dropped that student’s classes. INCORRECT: Deep Impact could have just so happened to hit one of these cometesimals, while the gas seen before impact might have came from a different region on the comet with different chemistry.—Scientific article, NASA site. CORRECT : Deep Impact could have just so happened to hit one of these cometesimals, while the gas seen before impact might have come from a different region on the comet with different chemistry. Note: A cometesimal is a “mini-comet.” Mistake 10: Omitting that when it is needed after say When there is no intervening conjunction, that may be omitted after the verb say: The witness said she overheard the defendant threaten to burn the man’s house down. However, if a conjunction such as after, although, because, before, in addition to, until, or while intervenes between the verb say and its object, that is needed to avoid ambiguity: INCORRECT: Santana said after he stopped recording, he watched for a few more minutes but never saw anyone perform CPR. CORRECT : Santana said that after he stopped recording, he watched for a few more minutes but never saw anyone perform CPR. Credit: DWT 1 Like |
Re: 10 Grammar Mistakes You Should Avoid [part 2] by billark: 1:13pm On Apr 06 |
Dont say the brooks family hosted a family dinner party last weekend.Instead say, the brooks[url][/url]' family hostat a dinner party last weeend. https://grammarminds.medium.com |
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