EduHelpersWing

In this article, writers from EduHelpersWing are highlighting some grammer mistakes students do while studying. Lets read more about it.

1. Chaos between Less and Fewer

Usually, students make mistakes between fewer and less because they don’t know the exact difference between them. If you are writing about quantity, then you have to decide whether the item is single or part of a group. So if it’s part of a group, then you have to use “fewer,” but if it's just one item, then use “less”. Commonly people make these mistakes while using ‘less’ when they talk about ‘fewer’, rather than other way around.   

Example:

• Incorrect: “The store was almost out of cat food. There were less cans on the shelves than there were yesterday.”
• Correct:   “The store was almost out of cat food. There were fewer cans on the shelves than there were yesterday.”

2. Capitalization Problem

Capitalizing words in the title create confusion for the writer. Generally, people capitalize the first and last letter of the word. But usually, people forgot the other rules, like the initial of a proper noun is always written with a capital letter even if it appears in the middle of the sentence. So you must capitalize the name of a person, a company, day, weeks, holidays, and institutions.

Example:

• Incorrect: “Shakespeare wrote romeo And juliet.”
• Correct:    “Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet.”

3. Quotation Mark Mistake

A quotation mark is usually used to signify a quotation from another source. It is always used for the spoken words, said by another person. But if there are some question marks in some quotations, then use quotation marks after the question mark. If a question mark is the part of the quotation, then close the quotation mark before it. At times, the question mark stays within the quotation mark, because it’s the part of statements given by someone.

Another major problem with quotation marks is, not knowing whether other punctuation marks like comma (,) or period (.) will be placed inside or outside the quotation mark? Place exclamation mark (!) and dash (-) inside the quotation marks, if it is part of the statement. But colon (:) and semicolon (;) are always placed outside of the quotation mark. Remember don’t use them around your title of the paper and reserve them for direct quotations.

Example:

• Incorrect: “The pool opens today, he said”
• Correct:    “The pool opens today,” he said.

4. Misuse of Subject-Verb Agreement

In English writing confusion over the subject-verb agreement has become the source of many mistakes. When you are talking or writing about the present tense, then the sentence must have subject and verb in it. If the verb is singular then the subject must be singular, similarly, if the subject is plural, then the verb should be plural.

Example:

• Incorrect: “Those recipes is good for new chefs.”
• Correct:   “Those recipes are good for new chefs.”
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5. Misplaced Modifier

For clearly expressing your ideas, you need to place a modifier directly next to the word, which is supposed to modify its meaning. The basic purpose of the modifier is to refer to the specific word in the sentence. But the misplaced modifiers can create a lot of confusion for the reader.

Example:

• Incorrect: “While walking on the sidewalk, Mary found a sparkly boy’s bracelet.”
• Correct:    “While walking on the sidewalk, Mary found a boy’s sparkly bracelet.”