Learn english tips and tricks #5

Yet, we all keep learning and practicing the English grammar rules because grammar knowledge is essential for writing, speaking and comprehension.

But here’s the good news: mastering English grammar isn’t impossible.

In this post, we’ll explore our top 13 tips for understanding English grammar and avoiding common mistakes. You’ll come out on top in the trickiest situations!

1. Memorize 3 Fundamental Capitalization Rules

You may think that capitalizing nouns is a trivial (not important) grammar rule. However, poorly capitalized words are a quick giveaway that you haven’t quite mastered English writing. Proper capitalization helps your writing look professional, tidy and correct.

The bad news is that it’s really just a matter of memorizing capitalization rules. The good news is there’s not much to memorize. Here are the three fundamental rules you can use to remember which words get capitalized in English:

• The first word in a sentence. You should always capitalize the first word in a sentence regardless of what type of word it is.

• Proper nouns (names). These include the names of people, locations, places, days and months, companies, etc. For example: Matthew, Helen, France, Tokyo, Mississippi, Microsoft, Saturday, January…

• Honorifics and titles, as well as their abbreviations. Mr., Mrs., Ms., Miss, Doctor (Dr.), President, Lord, etc.

For more examples, Towson University has a comprehensive list of words that get capitalized in English.

2. I and Me Aren’t Interchangeable

Which one of the sentences below do you think is grammatically correct?

Matt and I went for a walk.

Matt and me went for a walk.

If you guessed the first sentence, you’re right! However, don’t stress out if you guessed wrong. Many native English speakers get this rule confused, and you may often hear the second sentence in casual conversation even though it’s incorrect.

I and me are’t interchangeable. They are used in different grammatical constructs.

I is a pronoun that serves as a subject of a sentence. In the first example, Matt and I went for a walk, both I and Matt are subjects of the sentence while went is the verb.

Me is a pronoun that serves as an object of a sentence. Me is needed when someone else is performing the action. To use the example above, it would be absolutely correct to say: Matt took me for a walk. Matt is the subject and me is the object in the sentence.

Knowing your subjects and objects will help you use these types of pronouns flawlessly!

3. Be Careful When Using Your and You’re

This is probably the most common mistake on the internet today! Your and you’re sound absolutely the same, but they have very different meanings and uses.

Your is a possessive determiner that attributes something to you:

• Your dinner is getting cold.

• Your friends have reserved a table for the party.

• Your work is impressive!

You’re is a contraction of you are:

• You’re nice to me. (You are nice to me.)

• You’re going to a party. (You are going to a party.)

• You’re a very successful writer. (You are a very successful writer.)

Mistakes happen when possessive pronouns are confused with verb contractions, even among native English speakers. Often, you may see phrases like your wrong (instead of you’re wrong), you’re sister (instead of your sister), etc. These are grammatical errors. They’re easy to avoid. Don’t repeat them!

4. Be Careful When Using Their, They’re and There

This is another case of confusion between pronouns, contractions and, additionally, adverbs. Let’s analyze each of the words in question.

Their is a possessive determiner. When using their, you indicate that something belongs to them.

• Their car has broken down.

• Their dinner party was a big hit.

• It’s not their child.

They’re is a contraction of they are, very similar to you’re from tip number three.

• If they’re not coming, I’m leaving early. (If they are not coming, I’m leaving early.)

• They’re so happy to have been invited! (They are so happy to have been invited!)

• She doesn’t think they’re going to like it. (She doesn’t think they are going to like it.)

There is an adverb indicating a location of something, whether specific or abstract.

• Your keys are over there, on the table.

• When we got there, the place was already closed.

• There is more than one way to skin a cat. (An idiomatic expression.)

Once you understand the difference between these three words, you won’t make a mistake like their nice (instead of they’re nice) or there dog (instead of their dog) ever again!

This fun comic by The Oatmeal provides a few more examples of common errors arising from the confusion between contractions and pronouns.