The 11 Most Common Grammatical Mistakes And How To Avoid Them

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You might consider grammar an annoying technicality, a minuscule detail of speech and writing not worth much effort.

But a study last year from the Society for Human Resources and Management shows that 45% of employers plan to increase training for grammar and other language skills (meaning they're unhappy with the level now).

So what you say does matter as much as how you say it, especially in a professional environment. We've compiled a list of the top mistakes people make whether drafting an office memo or just chatting with co-workers around the water-cooler.

1. "Fewer" v. "Less"

Use "fewer" when discussing countable objects like money or people. For example, "This computer cost me less than $1000, or "less than 20 employees attended the meeting."

Use "less" for intangible concepts, like time. For example, "I spent less than one hour finishing this report."

2. "It's vs. "Its"

Normally, an apostrophe symbolizes possession. As in, "I took the dog's bone." But because apostrophes also usually replace omitted letters - like "don't" - the "it's" v. "its" decision gets complicated.

Use "its" as the possessive pronoun: "I took its bone." For the shortened version of "it is" use the version with the apostrophe. As in, "it's raining.

3. Dangling Modifiers

Dangling modifiers mean exactly what they sound like: adjectival clauses just hanging out at the beginning or end of a sentence. Often they don't modify the right word or phrase in the sentence.

For example, if you say "Rotting in the refrigerator, our office manager threw the fruit in the garbage." The structure of that sentence implies your office manager is a zombie trapped in a chilly kitchen appliance.

Make sure to place the modifying clause right next to the word or phrase it intends to describe. The correct version reads, "Our office manager threw the fruit, rotting in the refrigerator, in the garbage."

4. "Who" vs. "Whom"

Earlier this year, "The New Republic" published a review of Mark Liebovich's "This Town." Regardless of his opinions, the author's piece deserves praise. The title reads, "Careful Whom You Call A Hypocrite, Washington." Yes, Alec McGillis. Just yes.

When considering whether to use "who" or "whom," you have to rearrange the sentence in your own head. In the aforementioned case, "whom you call a hypocrite" changes to "you call whom a hypocrite." "Whom" suits the sentence instead of "who" because the word functions as the object of the sentence, not the subject.

It's not always easy to tell subjects from objects, but to use an over-simplified yet good, general rule: subjects start sentences (or clauses) and objects end them.

For reference, "who is a hypocrite?" would be a perfectly grammatically correct question to ask.

5. Me, Myself, And I

Deciding when to use me, myself, or I also falls under the subject/object discussion. Me always functions as the object; I is always the subject. And you only use "myself" when you've previously used "me" in the sentence. It's called a reflexive pronoun - it corresponds to a pronoun previously in the sentence.

To decide usage in "someone else and me/I" situations, take the other person out of the sentence. "My co-worker and I went to lunch." Is "I went to lunch" correct? You're good then.

6. "Lie" vs. "Lay"

Dear everyone, stop saying: "I'm going to go lay down." The word "lay" must have an object. Someone lays something somewhere. You lie. Unless you lay, which means lie but in the past tense. Okay, just look at the chart.

Present Past
Lie Lie Lay
Lay Lay Laid

7. Irregular Verbs

The English language has many surpasses. We can't list all the irregular verbs here be be aware they do exist. For example, no past tense existed for the word "broadcast." "Broadcasted" isn't a word. You'd say, "Yesterday, CNN broadcast a show." "Sneak" and "hang" also fall into this category. Look into it.

8. "Nor" vs. "Or"

"Nor" must be used with its counterpart, "neither," just as "either" and "or" stick together. Just think of them as best friends. For example, "Neither my boss or I understand the new program" is totally wrong.

9. "Then" v. "Than"

There's a simple distinction between these two words. Use "then" when discussing time. As in, "We had a meeting, then we went to lunch." Include "than" in comparison. "This meeting was more productive than the last one."

10. Ending Sentences With Prepositions

First of all, don't do it. Second, for those who don't know, prepositions are any words that a squirrel can run with a tree (i.e. The squirrel ran around, by, through, up, down, around, etc. the tree).

"My boss explained company policy, which we had to abide by" sounds awful. In most cases, you can just transpose the preposition to the beginning of the clause. "My boss explained company policy, by which we had to abide."

11. Subject (And Possessive Pronoun) And Verb Agreement

This rule seem a bit counterintuitive but most plural subject takes singular verbs (without an "s"). For example, "she types," but "they type." The pronoun agreement comes into play when when you add a possessive element to these sentences. "She types on her computer," and "they type on their computers."

As a caveat, the pronoun "someone" requires "her or his" as the possessive.

Feel free to email your boss with any questions. The Wall Street Journal thinks he or she will appreciate it.

*We had an internal argument about whether the headline should read "Grammar Mistakes or "Grammatical Mistakes". Please weigh in on this question if you think one is clearly more correct than the other.

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