5 Most Common Grammatical Errors

Understanding the five most common grammatical errors can help you improve your writing.
When you know which errors to look for, it's easier to act as your own editor.

Error #1: Run-on Sentence or Comma Splice

A run-on sentence is a sentence that joins two independent clauses without punctuation or the
appropriate conjunction. A comma splice is similar to a run-on sentence, but it uses a comma to
join two clauses that have no appropriate conjunction.
Fixing a run-on sentence or a comma splice can be accomplished in one of five different ways:

Separate the clauses into two sentences.

Replace the comma with a semi-colon.

Replace the comma with a coordinating conjunction--and, but, for, yet, nor, so.

Replace the comma with a subordinating conjunction--after, although, before, unless, as,
because, even though, if, since, until, when, while.

Replace the comma with a semi-colon and transitional word--however, moreover, on the
other hand, nevertheless, instead, also, therefore, consequently, otherwise, as a result.

For example:

Incorrect: Rachel is very smart, she began reading when she was three years old.

Correct: Rachel is very smart. She began reading when she was three years old.

Correct: Rachel is very smart; she began reading when she was three years old.

Correct: Rachel is very smart, and she began reading when she was three years old.

Correct: Because Rachel is very smart, she began reading when she was three years old.

Correct: Rachel is very smart; as a result, she began reading when she was three years
old.

Error #2: Pronoun Errors

Pronoun errors occur when pronouns do not agree in number with the nouns to which they refer.
If the noun is singular, the pronoun must be singular. If the noun is plural, however, the pronoun
must be plural as well. For example:

Incorrect: Everybody must bring their own lunch.

Correct: Everybody must bring his or her own lunch.

Many people believe that pronoun errors are the result of writers who are trying to avoid the
implication of sexist language. Although this is an admirable goal, correct grammar is still
important.

Error #3: Mistakes in Apostrophe Usage

Apostrophes are used to show possession. However, you do not use an apostrophe after a
possessive pronoun such as my, mine, our, ours, his, hers, its, their, or theirs. For example:

Incorrect: My mothers cabin is next to his' cabin.

Correct: My mother's cabin is next to his cabin.

In the case of it's, the apostrophe is used to indicate a contraction for it is. For example:

Incorrect: Its a cold day in October.

Correct: It's a cold day in October.

Error #4: Lack of Subject/Verb Agreement

When speaking or writing in the present tense, a sentence must have subjects and verbs that
agree in number. If the subject is singular, the verb must be singular. If the subject is plural, the
verb must be plural as well. For example:

Incorrect: The recipes is good for beginning chefs.

Correct: The recipes are good for beginning chefs.

Error #5: Misplaced Modifiers

To communicate your ideas clearly, you must place a modifier directly next to the word it is
supposed to modify. The modifier should clearly refer to a specific word in the sentence. For
example:

Incorrect: At eight years old, my father gave me a pony for Christmas.

Correct: When I was eight years old, my father gave me a pony for Christmas.

Additional Grammar Resources from YourDictionary

YourDictionary has an extensive listing of links of grammar rules and tips. Take advantage of
easy-to-understand lessons and examples can help you polish your grammatical skills while
working at a time that best fits your busy schedule. If English is not your native language, there
are also links on YourDictionary to resources that explain the most common grammatical
mistakes for ESL students.

What Are the Fourteen Punctuation Marks

in English Grammar?

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Knowing where and when to use the fourteen punctuation marks found in English grammar can
greatly improve your writing skills.
What are the fourteen punctuation marks in English grammar? They are the period, question
mark, exclamation point, comma, semicolon, colon, dash, hyphen, parentheses, brackets, braces,
apostrophe, quotation marks, and ellipses.

Sentence Endings
Three of the fourteen punctuation marks are appropriate for use as sentence endings. They are
the period, question mark, and exclamation point.
The period (.) is placed at the end of declarative sentences, statements thought to be complete
and after many abbreviations.
For example:
As a sentence ender: Jane and Jack went to the market .
After an abbreviation: Her Mar . birthday came and went.
Use a question mark (?) to indicate a direct question when placed at the end of a sentence. For
example: When did Jane leave for the market ?
The exclamation point/mark (!) is used when a person wants to express a sudden outcry or add
emphasis.
1. Within dialogue: Holy cow! screamed Jane.
2. To emphasize a point: My mother-in-law's rants make me furious !

Comma, Semicolon and Colon

The comma, semicolon and colon are often misused because they all can indicate a pause in a
series.
The comma is used to show a separation of ideas or elements within the structure of a sentence.
Additionally, it is used in letter writing after the salutation and closing.
Separating elements within sentences: Suzi wanted the black , green , and blue shoes.
Letter Salutations: Dear Uncle John ,

 Separation of two complete sentences: We went to the movies , and we went to the beach.
The semicolon (;) is used to connect independent clauses. It shows a closer relationship between
the clauses than a period would show. For example: John was hurt ; he knew she only said it to
upset him.
A colon (:) has two main uses:

The first is after a word introducing a quotation, an explanation, an example, or a series.

It is also often used after the salutation of a business letter.

The second is within time expressions. Within time, it is used to separate out the hour and
minute: 12 : 15 p.m.

Dash and the Hyphen

Two kinds of dashes are used throughout written communications. They are the endash and the
emdash. An endash is a symbol (-) that is used in writing or printing to connect numbers or to
connect elements of a compound adjective, such as 1880 - 1945 or Princeton - New York trains.
However, the emdash has more complicated grammatical use. The symbol of is used to:

Indicate a break in thought or sentence structure

Introduce a phrase added for emphasis, definition, or explanation

Separate two clauses

Use it in the following manner: We only wanted to get two birds - but the clerk talked us into
four pregnant parakeets.
A hyphen (-) is the same symbol as the endash. However, it has slightly different usage rules. A
hyphen is used between the parts of a compound word or name or between the syllables of a
word, especially when divided at the end of a line of text.
Examples of this in use include:
Between a compound name: Mrs. Smith - Reynolds
Within a compound word: back - to - back

Brackets, Braces and Parentheses

Brackets, braces and parentheses are symbols used to contain words that are a further
explanation or are considered a group.

Parentheses ( () ) are curved notations used to contain further thoughts or qualifying remarks.
However, parentheses can be replaced by commas without changing the meaning in most cases.
For example: John and Jane ( who were actually half brother and sister ) both have red hair.
Brackets are the squared off notations ([]) used for technical explanations. YourDictionary uses
them when you look up word definitions. At the bottom of each definition page, brackets
surround a technical description of where the word originated.
Braces ({}) are used to contain two or more lines of text or listed items to show that they are
considered as a unit. They are not commonplace in most writing, but can be seen in computer
programming to show what should be contained within the same lines.

Apostrophe, Quotation Marks and Ellipses

The final three punctuation forms in English grammar are the apostrophe, quotation marks and
ellipses. Unlike previously mentioned grammatical marks, they are not related to one another in
any form.
An apostrophe (') is used to indicate the omission of a letter or letters from a word, the possessive
case, or the plurals of lowercase letters.
Examples of the apostrophe in use include:
Omission of letters from a word: An issue of nat'l importance.
Possesive case: Sara's dog bites.
Plural for lowercase letters: Six people were told to mind their p's and q's. It should be noted
that, according to Purdue University, some teachers and editors enlarge the scope of the use of
apostrophe, and prefer their use on symbols (&'s), numbers (7's) and capitalized letters (Q&A's),
even though they are not necessary.
Quotations marks ( ) are a pair of punctuation marks used primarily to mark the beginning and
end of a passage attributed to another and repeated word for word. They are also used to indicate
meanings and to indicate the unusual or dubious status of a word.
Single quotation marks (') are used most frequently for quotes within quotes.
The ellipses mark is generally represented by three periods (. . . ) although it is occasionally
demonstrated with three asterisks (***). The ellipses are used in writing or printing to indicate an
omission, especially of letters or words. Ellipses are frequently used within quotations to jump
from one phrase to another, omitting unnecessary words that do not interfere with the meaning.
Students writing research papers or newspapers quoting parts of speeches will often employ
ellipses to avoid copying lengthy text that is not needed.
Verb Phrase Examples

A verb phrase can be the predicate of the clause or sentence. A verb phrase can also be a phrase
that functions as an adverb or adjective and contains a verb and its complements, objects, or
modifiers.
Phrase Is the Predicate of the Sentence

Following are some verb phrase examples where the verb phrase is the predicate of a sentence.
In this case, the verb phrase consists of the main verb plus any auxiliary, or helping, verbs.

She was walking quickly to the mall.

He should wait before going swimming.

Those girls are not trying very hard.

Ted might eat the cake.

You must go right now.

You cant eat that!

My mother is fixing us some dinner.

Words were spoken.

These cards may be worth hundreds of dollars!

The teacher is writing a report.

You have woken up everyone in the neighborhood.

Phrase Functions as an Adverb or Adjective

Some verb phrases have a single function which means it can act like an adverb or an adjective.
The phrase would include the verb and any modifiers, complements, or objects.

Texting on his phone, the man swerved into a ditch.

As the cat watched, the two puppies fought over a bone.

The small dog was reluctant to learn new things.

When he arrives, we can try to build a fort.

Finally, we can afford to buy a new house.

Walking on the ice, she slipped and fell.

Open the door to let the fresh air in.

To make lemonade, you first need some lemons.

It takes two people to tango.

All of these different verb phrases demonstrate how the dependents of the verb provide important
useful information for the reader about the action in the sentence. Verb phrases help to make your
text more informative and meaningful and they are essential to clear writing.

Types of Pronouns
A pronoun is a word that replaces a noun in a sentence. Pronouns are used so that our language is
not cumbersome with the same nouns being repeated over and over in a paragraph. Some
examples of pronouns include I, me, mine, myself, she, her, hers, herself, we, us, ours and
ourselves. You may have noticed that they tend to come in sets of four, all referring to the same
person, group or thing.

He, him, his and himself, for example, all refer to a male person or something belonging
to him

They, them, theirs and themselves all refer to a group or something belonging to a group,
and so on.

The truth is that there are many different types of pronouns, each serving a different purpose in a
sentence.

Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns can be the subject of a clause or sentence. They are: I, he, she, it, they, we, and
you. Example: They went to the store.
Personal pronouns can also be objective, where they are the object of a verb, preposition, or
infinitive phrase. They are: me, her, him, it, you, them, and us. Example: David gave the gift to
her.
Possession can be shown by personal pronouns, like: mine, his, hers, ours, yours, its, and theirs.
Example: Is this mine or yours?

Subject Pronouns
Subject pronouns are often (but not always) found at the beginning of a sentence. More precisely,
the subject of a sentence is the person or thing that lives out the verb.

I owe that person $3,000. I am living out that debt. I is the subject pronoun.

He and I had a fight. This sentence has two subjects because he and I were both
involved in the fight.

He broke my kneecaps. You get the idea.

To him, I must now pay my children's college funds. If you'll notice, the verb in this
sentence the action is "pay." Although I is not at the beginning of the sentence, it is
the person living out the action and is, therefore, the subject.

Object Pronouns
By contrast, objects and object pronouns indicate the recipient of an action or motion. They come
after verbs and prepositions (to, with, for, at, on, beside, under, around, etc.).

The guy I borrowed money from showed me a crowbar and told me to pay him
immediately.

I begged him for more time.

He said he'd given me enough time already.

I tried to dodge the crowbar, but he hit me with it anyway.

Just then, the police arrived and arrested us.

Subject vs. Object Pronouns

There is often confusion over which pronouns you should use when you are one half of a dual
subject or object. For example, should you say:

"Me and him had a fight." or "He and I had a fight?"

"The police arrested me and him." or "The police arrested he and I?"

Some people will tell you that you should always put the other person first and refer to yourself
as "I" because it's more proper, but those people are wrong. You can put the other person first out
of politeness, but you should always use the correct pronouns (subject or object) for the sentence.
A good test to decide which one you need is to try the sentence with one pronoun at a time.
Would you say, "Me had a fight?" Of course not. You'd say, "I had a fight." What about, "Him
had a fight?" No, you'd say, "He had a fight." So when you put the two subjects together, you get,
"He and I had a fight." The same rule applies to the other example.

You wouldn't say, "The police arrested he," or, "The police arrested I."

You would use "him" and "me."

So the correct sentence is, "The police arrested him and me."

Possessive Adjectives vs. Possessive Pronouns

Pronominal possessive adjectives include the following: my, your, our, their, his, her and its.
They are sort of pronouns in that they refer to an understood noun, showing possession by that
noun of something. They are technically adjectives, though, because they modify a noun that
follows them.

My money is all gone.

I gambled it all away on your race horse.

His jockey was too fat.

In all of these examples, there is a noun (money, race horse, jockey) that has not been replaced
with a pronoun. Instead, an adjective is there to show whose money, horse and jockey were
talking about.
Possessive pronouns, on the other hand mine, yours, ours, theirs, his, hers, its are truly
pronouns because they refer to a previously named or understood noun. They stand alone, not
followed by any other noun. For comparison's sake, look at this sentence:

You have your vices, and I have mine.

There are two types of pronouns here: subject (you/I) and possessive (mine). There's also a
possessive adjective (your). We'll deal with the subject pronouns momentarily, but for now, just
look at the others.
Your is followed by the noun, vices, so although we know that your refers to you, it is not the
noun or the noun substitute (pronoun). Vices is the noun. In the second half of the sentence,
however, the noun and the possessive adjective have both been replaced with one word the
pronoun, mine. Because it stands in the place of the noun, mine is a true pronoun whereas your is
an adjective that must be followed by a noun.

Indefinite Pronouns
These pronouns do not point to any particular nouns, but refer to things or people in general.
Some of them are: few, everyone, all, some, anything, and nobody. Example: Everyone is
already here.

Relative Pronouns
These pronouns are used to connect a clause or phrase to a noun or pronoun. These are: who,
whom, which, whoever, whomever, whichever, and that. Example: The driver who ran the stop
sign was careless.

Intensive Pronouns
These pronouns are used to emphasize a noun or pronoun. These are: myself, himself, herself,
themselves, itself, yourself, yourselves, and ourselves. Example: He himself is his worst critic.

Demonstrative Pronouns
There are five demonstrative pronouns: these, those, this, that, and such. They focus attention on
the nouns that are replacing. Examples: Such was his understanding. Those are totally
awesome.

Interrogative Pronouns
These pronouns are used to begin a question: who, whom, which, what, whoever, whomever,
whichever, and whatever. Example: Who will you bring to the party?

Reflexive Pronouns
There is one more type of pronoun, and that is the reflexive pronoun. These are the ones that end
in self or "selves." They are object pronouns that we use when the subject and the object are
the same noun.

I told myself not to bet all my money on one horse.

The robber hurt himself chasing me through the alley.

We also use them to emphasize the subject.

Usually, the guy I borrowed the money from will send an employee to collect the money,
but since I owed so much, he himself came to my house.

Examples of Pronouns in Context

Now see if you can find all the pronouns and possessive adjectives in this paragraph:
No matter what your teachers may have taught you about pronouns, the I's don't always have it.
If your teachers ever warned you about the evils of gambling, however, they were right about

that. You don't want someone breaking your kneecaps with his crowbar; it will hurt, the police
might arrest you, and you may never forgive yourself.

Pronoun Antecedent
A pronoun antecedent is a word that comes before a pronoun to which the pronoun refers.
Following are definitions of antecedent as well as a review about the types of pronoun,
information about the functions of an antecedent in a sentence, and examples of how to use in a
sentence.

Defining a Pronoun Antecedent

The word antecedent means something that precedes something else. In language, it is the
word that a pronoun refers back to. Since the pronoun replaces the noun, it has to agree in
number. So, if the antecedent, or word that comes before, is singular, then the pronoun that takes
its place must also be singular.
It can be confusing if there are several words between the pronoun and its antecedent. These
words or clauses have no bearing on the words and they need to be ignored.
Following are some special situations with examples of the correct way to have pronoun
antecedent agreement.

Compound subjects can be a problem. If the subjects are joined by an and then the
pronoun needs to be plural, as in Bob and Paul took their books. If the subjects are
joined by or or nor, then have the pronoun agree with the subject that is closer, or
closest, to the pronoun. An example is Either the actor or the singers messed up their
performance.

If the pronoun is referring to one thing or a unit, like a team or a jury, then the pronoun
needs to be singular. An example is: The jury has reached its verdict. Sometimes
words sound plural and are not, like measles or the news. These would need a singular
pronoun, as in: Measles is not as widespread as it once was. This makes sense if you
replace the word measles with disease.

Indefinite Pronouns That Are Antecedents

There are several rules concerning the use of indefinite pronouns as antecedents and the pronoun
antecedent agreement. The following indefinite pronouns are singular and need a singular
pronoun: one, no one, some one, everyone, anyone, nobody, anybody, somebody, everybody,
nothing, anything, something, everything, each, either, neither. An example is Everything here
has its own box.

The plural indefinite pronouns: several, both, few, and many, need to have a plural pronoun, like
in this sentence: Several are there because of their looks.
Lastly, if there is an indefinite pronoun that is being modified by a prepositional phrase, then the
object of the phrase will determine the agreement between the pronoun and its antecedent. These
special indefinite pronouns are: some, most, all, any, or none. Look at these two sentences:
Most of the flour fell out of its canister and Many of the gems have lost their shine. If the
object, like flour is uncountable, then the pronoun has to be singular (its). If the object is
countable, like gems, then the pronoun needs to be plural (their).

Pronoun Review
A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun or another pronoun. Personal pronouns
substitute for a certain thing or person and are classified by subjective, objective, and possessive:

Subjective personal pronouns are the subject of the sentence and are:

I, we, you, he, she, it, and they

Objective personal pronouns are the object of a preposition, verb, or infinitive phrase.
These are:

me, us, you, him, her, it, and them

Possessive personal pronouns show ownership. They are:

mine, ours, yours, his, hers, its, and theirs

Demonstrative pronouns identify and point to the noun or pronoun. They are:
this, that, these, and those
Interrogative pronouns are used to ask a question. These are:
who, whom, what, which whoever, whomever, whatever, and whichever
Relative pronouns link clauses or phrases to the rest of the sentence. It could be:
who, whoever, whom, whomever, that, which, and whichever
Indefinite pronouns are not specific and refer to all, some, or none. There are many of these, and
a few are:
one, few, any, nobody, anything, and everything

Reflexive pronouns refer back to the subject of a clause or sentence. These are:
myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, and themselves
Intensive pronouns emphasize and intensify the word preceding it. They are the same as the
reflexive pronouns. An example is I myself could not believe it.