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Grammar - Going Back to School? You Need to Get it Right!

Recently, an editing client I work with called something to my attention. He is writing his thesis for his master’s degree, and … well, really it was his terrible misuse of common words that got me thinking.

Around the fourth page of red-pen hell, I realized that it is fairly common that adults who have returned to academia have forgotten many basic rules of writing. Forgetting those things is fair, to be honest. As adults, we’ve had to make room in our brains for things that are much more important, like our Twitter password and our kids’ birthdays.

So, because my brain works in a way that allows me to remember all of those writing rules but forces me make a really dumb sound every time someone asks me one of my kids’ birthdays, I’m going to give you some quick homonym memory cheat sheet!

They’re: A contraction of they are.

                 This is correct - “They’re going to ace this test.”

                 This is wrong – “That is they’re cat.”

There:    An indication of a location.

                 This is correct - “The ice cream is right there.”

                 This is wrong – “That is there cat.”

Their:     An indication of ownership.

                 This is correct - “That is their cat.”

                 This is wrong – “The car is over their.”

Two:        A number.

                 This is correct - “There are two cats.”

                 This is wrong – “I will go two the store.”

To:            An indication of physical or implied direction (usually).

                 This is correct - “I walked to school.”

                 This is wrong – “There are to wheels on that bicycle.”

Too:         An addition to something, or an indication of something excessive.

                 This is correct - “There are too many cooks."

                 This is wrong – “I want too scoops of ice cream.”

You’re:    A contraction of you are.

                 This is correct - “You’re an awesome golfer.”

                 This is wrong – “You’re feet smell bad.”

Your:      An indication of ownership

                 This is correct - “That is your car.”

                 This is wrong – “Your always bugging me.”

Yore:       A really, really long time ago.

                 This is correct - “Those are from the days of yore.”

                 This is wrong – “Yore burning that toast.”

Now, any time you have a question about which word to use (or if you want to punk people for using your the wrong way in their Facebook post), you have a handy reference!  Hooray! 

Now stop judging my nerd-excitement.

 

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