On September 16 I wrote a post about five common grammar mistakes and how to avoid making them. Since there are many more commonly-made grammar mistakes, here’s a follow-up post with five more grammar peeves:
{1. Passed vs. Past}
Passed is a verb. It’s the past* participle of pass.
Examples:
• She passed a note to her best friend.
• 2011 passed even faster than 2010.
Past refers to location in time or space. It can be an adjective, noun, or adverb.
Examples:
• The danger is now past. (adjective)
• The famous writer had trouble making ends meet in the past. (noun)
• The shark swam slowly past. (adverb)
*In the above explanation of passed, past participle is used. Past used this way is an adjective; it describes the type of participle.
{2. Hone vs. Home}
Hone means to make sharper or more focused. Example: Stephen King is adamant that reading and writing hones a writer’s skills.
The verb home means to move toward a goal or to be guided to a target. Example: Many aspiring writers home in on author blogs for tips and advice.
{3. A while vs. Awhile}
A while is a noun referring to time. The article A before while is a sign that you're dealing with a noun.
Example: It's been a while since I went to the movie theater. (Notice here that you could replace a while with another article-noun combination such as a year.)
Awhile is an adverb that means for a time. Example: Go play awhile. (Notice here that you could replace awhile with another adverb such as quietly.)
{4. That vs. Which}
Use that when setting off something restrictive (essential to the meaning of the sentence), which is something you wouldn’t put in parentheses.
Example:
The Nile is the river that gives Egypt Life. (The phrase that gives Egypt life is essential to understanding the sentence.)
Use which to set off something nonrestrictive, or parenthetical (nonessential to the sentence’s meaning).
Example:
The Nile, which flows into the Mediterranean, gives Egypt life. (The parenthetical phrase which flows into the Mediterranean is not essential to the sentence; it’s extra information.)
{5. Italics vs. Quotations vs. Underlining}
Italics is used for emphasis and distinction and also for foreign words not yet assimilated into your country’s language. In handwritten or typed texts, underlining has the same meaning as italics. The following list are things that should be italicized (or underlined if you’re writing longhand; if you’re typing, choose either italics or underlining but not both at the same time):
• legal citations
• letters of the alphabet when referring to them as letters
• scientific names
• titles of books*, plays, long poems, newspapers, and magazines
• titles of movies and radio and television series
• names of operas and long musical compositions
• names of paintings and sculptures
• names of famous speeches (Example: Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech)
• titles of pamphlets
• names of transportation vessels (Example: the Titanic)
*Sacred books, such as the Bible or the Koran, are not italicized; those titles are written in regular type.
Quotations are most commonly used to represent exact language, spoken or written, that has come from somebody else (dialogue or a direct quote).
Quotations are also used to set off titles for short works such as:
• book chapters
• short stories/flash fiction stories
• magazine and newspaper articles
• short poems
• TV episodes
Quotations are also used to indicate irony or disdain, called scare quotes or sneer quotes. Example: Politicians “care” more about the people than themselves.
One of my favorite blogs is The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks. It features pictures of misused quotation marks on things like store signs and flyers. Check it out, laugh at the silly errors, and avoid making the same mistakes!
What are your grammar pet peeves?
Have a happy weekend, Zigzaggers!
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