As a previous spelling bee I personally find incorrect spelling and grammar annoying (as would any potential employer considering you for a job I might add). In a world of TTYL, LOL and OMG, I think perhaps proper spelling and grammar has been regarded as less important than trendy abbreviations. Not to worry, help is here!
Print this out and post it next to your computer if you have to! Your computer’s spelling and grammar check should catch your mistakes but when writing a handwritten card or letter, you’ll want to refer to these points to be sure.
1) Day’s, Party’s, week’s Condo’s etc.,-There is not supposed to be an apostrophe as one would refer to the ownership as in ‘Peter’s house’. Rather it would be ‘days’, ‘parties’, ‘weeks’ or ‘condos’. The house belongs to Peter and the apostrophe shows that. This has now become one of the most prevalent grammatical errors that I’ve come across while moving from Canada to the U.S.
2) There, Their and They’re- This one seems to get mixed up easily by most. The word ‘their’ implies belonging to someone or something, or possession. An example “We’re going to their house for dinner tonight”. The word “there” is used as such, “Your purse is on the table over there.” And finally, the word “they’re” is the same as “they are” so it can be used as follows, “I heard that they’re going to London this summer.”
3) To, Too and Two- The word “to” can be used to address a card of course but also in such sentence as “Did you want to come with us?” Whereas the word “too” means also or extra, referring to an abundance so think of the extra “o” as just that, extra. “You put too much sugar in my coffee!” Lastly, the word “two” is used in the numerical sense like, “We need two more players on our team.”
4) Names like Davis’s– This is simply Davis’. The apostrophe is in lieu of an extra ‘s’ and refers to ownership. For example: “This is Karla Davis’ house”.
5) Have vs. Of- “She should of come with us last night” is INCORRECT. Rather, the word is “have” and should read “She should have come with us last night. This is the same for ‘would’ and ‘could’.
6) Double Negatives- You only need one negative in a sentence. This sentence would be incorrect- “You aren’t spending time with nobody?” rather it should read, “You aren’t spending time with anybody?”
7) Its vs. It’s-Using the apostrophe replaces the letter ‘i’, so if you think of it in those terms, ask yourself if the “it is” applies to your sentence. Such as “It’s going to be a foggy day.” When broken down, it would be broken down as “It is going to be a foggy day after all”.
This sentence would show the proper use of ‘its”: “That is its original paint!” See how if you broke it down it could not read “That is it is original paint”, that would not be correct so no apostrophe can be used.
8)Whom vs. Who- ‘Whom may I say is calling?” is correct over using the word ‘who’.
This is a tricky one but here is the Rule: Like whom, the pronoun him ends with m. When you’re trying to decide whether to use who or whom, ask yourself if the answer to the question would be he or him. That’s the trick: if you can answer the question being asked with him, then use whom, and it’s easy to remember because they both end with m. For example, if you’re trying to ask, “Who (or whom) do you like?” The answer would be “I like him.” Him ends with an m, so you know to use whom.
9)Gone vs. Went- ” I should have gone to work after all” would be correct, however “I should have went to work after all” is not because of the should+have+past participle.
10) Lose vs. Loose- “I always loose my keys” is NOT correct, rather it’s “I always lose my keys. A trick to remember the difference is if you lose something you have less than you did before, so therefore use one less letter “o”.
Also, refer to this link for the 100 most common misspelled words, where they are spelled correctly for you: http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/misspelled.html
*Please note there are not spaces after the numberings as the program has some limitations, it was not intended to look so squished.
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