Dec 14, 2024
In this Web Story, explore 10 common grammatical mistakes even experts make, from subject-verb agreement to misplaced modifiers. Learn how to avoid these errors and improve your writing with clear, concise examples.
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Incorrect: The team of experts is working hard. Correct: The team of experts are working hard. Subject-verb agreement depends on whether the subject is collective or individual. In this case, "team" is singular, but "experts" suggests plural.
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Incorrect: Walking down the street, a beautiful house caught my eye. Correct: Walking down the street, I saw a beautiful house. Dangling modifiers incorrectly link actions to the wrong subjects, causing confusion about who or what is doing the action.
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Incorrect: I love to read, I also enjoy writing. Correct: I love to read; I also enjoy writing. A comma splice occurs when two independent clauses are joined by a comma. A semicolon or conjunction should be used instead.
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Incorrect: I went to the store I bought milk and bread. Correct: I went to the store. I bought milk and bread. Run-on sentences happen when two independent clauses are improperly connected without punctuation or conjunctions.
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Incorrect: I saw a dog wearing a red collar walking down the street. Correct: I saw a dog walking down the street wearing a red collar. Misplaced modifiers can confuse meaning by placing descriptive phrases in the wrong part of the sentence.
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Incorrect: Everyone should bring their own lunch. Correct: Everyone should bring his or her own lunch. Pronouns must agree in number and gender with their antecedents. "Everyone" is singular, so the correct pronoun is "his or her."
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Incorrect: Their going to the store. Correct: They're going to the store. Homonyms are words that sound the same but have different meanings. "Their" indicates possession, while "they're" means "they are."
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Incorrect: She very quickly ran to the store. Correct: She ran quickly to the store. Excessive adverbs weaken sentences. "Very" is unnecessary when "quickly" already conveys the intended meaning.
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Incorrect: The cat's toy is broken. (meaning multiple cats) Correct: The cats' toy is broken. Apostrophes show possession. For plural nouns, place the apostrophe after the "s" to indicate ownership by multiple subjects.
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Incorrect: Because I was tired. Correct: Because I was tired, I went to bed early. A sentence fragment lacks a complete thought. It requires both a subject and a predicate to form a grammatically correct sentence.
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