What Is the Difference between Grammar and Spelling?

What Is the Difference between Grammar and Spelling?

Both grammar and spelling are important to individuals. You’ll need to have strong grammar skills in both your personal and professional roles or at least use an online thesis checker. Professionally, you’ll need to know the difference between grammar and spelling in order to look intelligent and to show that you paid attention during your education.

According to the Summer Institute of Language and other groups, there are more than 2,500 languages in the world, meaning that there are thousands of grammars. Each has its own specific rules that have to be followed in order to write coherent sentences. Of course, these rules are sometimes controversial. Even English writing rules have been debated. The Oxford comma, for example, is one of the most controversial grammar rules in English.

Spelling, on the other hand, is defined as using letters to create words. While it’s not as controversial as grammar, there are still some debates over spelling. For example, there are still debates over whether “favorite” or “favourite” is the correct spelling, even though the first is generally accepted as US English and the second as UK English.

Of course, the definition of grammar and spelling is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. There are many differences between the two that you need to understand if you’re going to master both.

How Grammar and Spelling Differ

grammar and spelling difference

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Spelling and grammar are both fundamental to communication. Spelling teaches how to create words out of common sounds using phonics. It addresses how words are pronounced and how different letters can sound differently when placed in a specific order or next to certain other letters. It’s important to have a strong grasp of spelling in order to be sure you’re clearly communicating. It also helps if you know how to spell words that are almost identical so that you always use the correct one. Even though computer programs have made spelling much easier, you still need to know how to spell a large number of words.

Grammar, on the other hand, teaches how to put these words in the proper order to communicate thought. It teaches how words can be used to modify each other and how they can be changed depending on how they’re ordered in a sentence. Without grammar, your vocabulary is simply a bunch of words that have individual meaning but can’t be placed together to communicate complex ideas. Without grammar, you could point out a bird, but you wouldn’t be able to tell someone that the bird on the large oak tree is a blue jay.

grammar and spelling checklist

Looking at grammar vs spelling, it’s clear that you need to have a strong understanding of both if you want to communicate.

Proofreading Tips and the Difference Between Grammar and Spelling

Knowing the difference between grammar and spelling helps you understand both a little bit better and can help you determine how to proofread for each. Editing for spelling isn’t the same as editing your writing for grammar. To help you make certain both your spelling and grammar are correct, here are a few proofreading tips.

  • Proofread your writing for spelling and grammar separately: Trying to catch errors in both mean you’re likely to miss some common mistakes. If you read through your writing and look only for spelling errors, you’ll find that you catch more. Once you’ve done that, read through again and look only at the grammar. You may need to proofread a third time for content.
  • When proofreading for spelling, try reading your writing backwards: This way, you focus on each individual word and not on the sentence as a whole. Of course, the content may not make sense to you when reading it backwards, but that’s not what you’re focused on.
  • Print your document and proofread the hard copy: This can be incredibly helpful for both spelling and grammar. People simply read text more closely if it’s on paper rather than on the screen.
  • Use a dictionary if you’re uncertain about the spelling of a word: This can also be helpful if you’re not certain if you’re using the right word or not.
  • Have someone else read over what you’ve written: Having a fresh set of eyes look over your work can reveal errors you might have never caught. That’s because your brain will sometimes automatically correct errors or fill in missing words.
  • Step away from your writing before you proofread it: While you may not always have this luxury, if you can, wait until the next day to edit something. By letting yourself walk away from the document for a little bit, you’ll be able to return with a fresh point of view.
  • Use an online grammar and spelling corrector: These correct my sentence online tools are designed to help catch errors you might miss.
  • Consult a grammar book or other resource if you have a question about your writing: There’s no reason not to take advantage of these resources.
proofreading online check

Image credit: Grammarly

Using Our Grammar and Spelling Corrector

If you want to use an online check grammar and spelling tool, you’ll find a lot of them out there. However, not all of these different options are as useful. Some only do a basic grammar and spelling check. Others, such as Sentence Corrector, do much more. This editing software actually looks at your grammar and spelling in context, which means it’s less likely to highlight things that are actually correct. It also looks at punctuation, including quotations and cited text. This means its plagiarism scanner will not be set off by text you’ve quoted from other sources.

Knowing This Important Difference

Understanding the difference between grammar and spelling is vital to writing well-written, grammatically correct pieces without any errors. It’s also a part of a good education. However, even those with graduate degrees may make the occasional mistake. That’s why there are online grammar and spelling correctors.

Regularly make use of Sentence Corrector as the last step in the writing process so you can be sure no little error has slipped past you!