Without using grammar in a sentence, it can’t make complete sense. Grammar exposes the author’s thought and ideas in the same manner as those are. A minor error distracts readers from understanding the author’s writing. So, it’s very important to be alert about the errors and keep all those in mind. Here we discussed some errors which commonly occur unknowingly or due to negligence of knowledge about grammar:
Without using grammar in a sentence, it can’t make complete sense. Grammar exposes the author’s thought and ideas in the same manner as those are. A minor error distracts readers from understanding the author’s writing. So, it’s very important to be alert about the errors and keep all those in mind. Here we discussed some errors which commonly occur unknowingly or due to negligence of knowledge about grammar:
[1] Errors about Singular- Plural related to Subject-Verb
The verb of a sentence must be according to the subject. If the subject of the sentence is singular, its verb must also be singular; and if the subject is plural, the verb must also be plural. Example:
Incorrect: An essential chapter of that book has been missing. Correct: An essential chapter of that book has been missing.
[2] Incompleteness of Sentence
Incomplete sentence due to number of clauses is called a sentence fragment. A fragment may lack a subject, a complete verb, or both. Sometimes fragments depend on the proceeding sentence to give it meaning. Example:
Incorrect: He gave a treat to all his friends. Despite of the fight. Correct: Despite of the fight, he gave a treat to all his friends.
[3] Errors related to use of a comma
‘Comma’ is used in many senses to give a proper meaning to a sentence. Due to misuse of it, meaning can differ. Here, some errors are discussed which are usually occurred with the misuse of ‘comma’ like:
- comma: A comma should be used after an introductory word, phrase, or clause. This gives the reader a slight pause after an introductory element and often can help avoid confusion. Example:
Incorrect: Before she could stop him the kid rang their neighbor’s bell. Correct: Before she could stop him, the kid rang their neighbor’s bell.
- Comma with a conjunction: A comma separates two or more independent clauses in a compound sentence separated by a conjunction. The comma goes after the first clause and before the coordinating conjunction that separates the clauses. Example:
Incorrect: He was handsome and he was successful and he was full of life. Correct: He was handsome, successful, and full of life.
- Superfluous Commas: To throw commas around liberally when they aren’t necessary is occurred. Example:
Incorrect: The woman never sang in public, because she was not comfortable to sing in front of a crowd.
Correct: The woman never sang in public because she was not comfortable to sing in front of a crowd.
- Splice of a comma: A comma splice occurs when two separate sentences are joined with a comma rather than a period or semicolon. Writers often create comma splices when using transitional words, such as however, therefore, moreover, nevertheless, or furthermore. Example:
Incorrect: My plan was to go out for a movie, however I had to cancel that due to an urgent meeting.
Correct: My plan was to go out for a movie; however, I had to cancel that due to an urgent meeting.
[4] Misplaced or Dangling Modifier
A misplaced modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that is improperly separated from the word it modifies or describes. Sentences with this error can sound awkward, ridiculous, or confusing. A dangling modifier is a word or phrase that modifies a word not clearly stated in the sentence. Example:
Incorrect: While walking along the beach, Silvia found a sparkly girl’s set of earring. Correct: While walking along the beach, Silvia found a girl’s sparkly set of earring.
[5] Wrong Word Usage
There are a variety of words and phrases that are commonly confused and misused in sentences. So before using homophones, the word having the same pronunciation but different meaning, the author must go through its meaning carefully. There are hundreds of these commonly confused words; here we will see the difference in the use of similar pronunciation word because of their spelling. Example:
Incorrect: I never want to loose a good friend like Sita.
Correct: I never want to lose a good friend like Sita.
For examples, some other words that create confusion are:
- To/ too/two
- There/ their
- Lose/loose
- Mare/ mere
- Buy/by
- Hole/whole
- Write/right
- Week/weak
- Steal/steel and many more.
[6] Lounge Sentence
A sentence can become a burden to read when there are too many equally weighted phrases. These make it lengthy and boring for readers. Example:
Incorrect: Jason was planning to attend his friend’s wedding on June 30, but at the last minute he found out he had a jury duty, so he couldn’t attend the wedding, and he felt really guilty about it.
Correct: Unexpectedly, Jason was called for jury duty and couldn’t attend his friend’s June 30 wedding. He felt guilty about missing it.
[7] Colon Mistakes
A colon is used after a complete sentence to introduce a word, phrase, clause, list, or quotation. The colon signals that what follows proves or explains the sentence preceding the colon. Example:
Incorrect: People move to cities for: the better lifestyle, high paying jobs, and a good atmosphere.
Correct: People move to cities for three reasons: better lifestyle, high paying jobs and good atmosphere.
[8] Errors in Using Infinitive:
An infinitive is the word “to” with a verb. There are no grammar rules that prohibit split infinitives, but many experts disapprove of them. If the sentence sounds awkward by correcting the split, our rule of thumb is to go with, what makes the most sense in the context of your writing and for the ease of reading. Example:
Incorrect: She tried to quickly finish her breakfast before she had to leave. Correct: She tried to finish the breakfast quickly before she had to leave.
[9] Errors in using Apostrophes:
The apostrophe is used for a purpose, either to indicate a possession (implying ownership) or a contraction (in place of other letters). Since, its use to indicate a contraction is easiest, we will deal with this first. But, if it is used wrongly, the meaning of a sentence can be misunderstood by the readers or it might sound awkward. It can be explained by the following examples:
[a] Using Apostrophes to Indicate Contraction- Where one or more letters have been dropped, an apostrophe is used as a replacement:
- It is = it’s
- We are = we’re
- Does not = Doesn’t
- Of the clock = o’clock Example:
Incorrect: I don’t believe its finally Friday. Correct: I don’t believe it’s (it is) finally Friday.
[b] Using Apostrophes to Indicate Possession- Apostrophes are also used to indicate possession/ custody or occupancy. Matthew’s car
- The teachers’ staff room
- The farmers’ fields (multiple fields owned by multiple farmers)
[c] When Not to Use Apostrophes- If the word is a plural, then do not use an apostrophe like people, children. There are possible exceptions to this rule are if the word comprises a single letter, a number or abbreviation where the simple addition of an s could cause confusion. Hence:
There are three r’s in word ‘Error’.
To write “There are three rs in word ‘Error’ may confuse the reader even though it is grammatically correct. Alternatively, you could rephrase this as “There are three “r”s in the word ‘Error’.
[10] Unnecessary or Missing Capitalization:
Use capitalization with a proper noun, pronoun, adjective, first words of sentences, and highlights of important words in titles. Example:
Incorrect: there are many ways to skin a cat. Correct: There are many ways to skin a cat.
[11] Unnecessary Hyphen:
The use of hyphens has combined all of these words into a single word. Hyphen is used between parts of a compound name or words. It serves to remove confusion from sentences and to combine multiple words to form a single meaning. Example:
Generation-Z is tech-savvy.
I want to buy blue-coloured shirt.
Using hyphen, a writer must keep in mind these characteristics:
- If a compound adjective comes before the noun, they are hyphenated.
- If a compound adjective comes after the noun, there is no hyphen.
- he hyphen is omitted with such compound adjectives as well as adjectives preceded by adverbs that end in ‘-ly’ such as:
Writing being a complicated task, language might be confusing due to its spelling and grammar checkers that will not differentiate between some of the often-used words that are confusing.