10 Grammar Mistakes You Should Avoid

10 Grammar Mistakes You Should Avoid 10 Grammar Mistakes You Should Avoid 10 Grammar Mistakes You Should Avoid By Maeve Maddox If you want to write clear, correct English, you certainly need to pay attention to the grammar rules. To help you with that, we collaborated with the folks from Grammarly and Write To Done to create a list with 30 common grammar mistakes you should avoid. Enjoy! Mistake 1: Using whom as a subject INCORRECT: Fire personnel radioed deputies to stop the driver, whom, according to reports, appeared to have been under the influence of intoxicants. CORRECT : Fire personnel radioed deputies to stop the driver, who, according to reports, appeared to have been under the influence of intoxicants. In this sentence, the pronoun is the subject of the verb appeared and therefore requires the subject form who. The object form of who is whom, which functions as the object of a verb or as the object of a preposition: That is the man whom I saw at the window. (object of the verb saw) Did he say to whom he sent the letter? (object of the preposition to) The misuse of whom as a subject frequently occurs when a phrase intervenes between the pronoun and its subject. Be especially careful with such expressions as â€Å"according to so-and-so,† â€Å"in my opinion,† â€Å"one suspects,† etc. Less frequently, but more embarrassingly, whom is sometimes substituted for who when little or nothing stands between it and its verb, as in this sentence taken from a news account: â€Å"An off-duty fireman whom lives in the area provided immediate assistance.† Mistake 2: Unnecessary would in a wish about the past INCORRECT: Ten Things I Wish I Would Have Known When I Was Twenty CORRECT : Ten Things I Wish I Had Known When I Was Twenty The opportunity for knowing the ten things existed in the past, but exists no longer. The tense required, therefore, is the past perfect (had + past participle). Mistake 3: Dangling modifier INCORRECT: At the age of four, Sam’s family moved from Florida, Missouri, to Hannibal. CORRECT : At the age of four, Sam moved with his family from Florida, Missouri, to Hannibal. Modifiers should be positioned as closely as possible to the element they modify. The modifying phrase â€Å"At the age of four† modifies â€Å"Sam,† not â€Å"Sam’s family.† Mistake 4: Subject-Verb disagreement with delayed subject INCORRECT: There goes Sally and Greg on their way to the movies. CORRECT : There go Sally and Greg on their way to the movies. Subjects and verbs must agree in number. When a sentence begins with here or there, the true subject of the sentence follows the verb. â€Å"Sally and Greg† is a plural subject, so the verb go must also be plural: â€Å"Sally and Greg go.† Mistake 5: Incorrect use of object pronouns INCORRECT: Me and my brothers all have college degrees in business. CORRECT : My brothers and I all have college degrees in business. Several English pronouns retain different forms that indicate their function in a sentence. Me is an object form. In the example, it is incorrectly used as the subject of the verb have. Other object forms often used incorrectly are him, her, us, them, and whom. Mistake 6: Incorrect use of subject pronouns INCORRECT: The owner was most kind to my wife and I as we toured the grounds. CORRECT : The owner was most kind to my wife and me as we toured the grounds. I is a subject pronoun form. It is correctly used as the subject of a verb. Its object form is me, which is used as the object of a verb or, as in this example, the object of a preposition (to). Not all English pronouns retain an object form. The pronouns that do have subject and object forms are he/him, she/her, we/us, they/them, and who/whom. Mistake 7: Inappropriate use of reflexive pronoun forms INCORRECT: Jack and myself built the company from scratch. CORRECT : Jack and I built the company from scratch. A pronoun that ends in -self or -selves is called a reflexive pronoun. This type of pronoun refers to a noun or personal pronoun that occurs elsewhere in the sentence. For example, â€Å"He cut himself shaving.† In this example, himself refers to the same person as the one meant by He. A typical error is to use a reflexive pronoun in place of a personal pronoun: INCORRECT: Thank you for everything you did for myself and my family. CORRECT : Thank you for everything you did for me and my family. Note: A more polite usage is to put me last in the phrase: Thank you for everything you did for my family and me. Mistake 8: Incorrect use of did instead of had in certain â€Å"if clauses† One use of the conjunction if is to introduce a clause that states an action that would have changed an outcome. For example, â€Å"If I hadn’t missed the train, I would be in London now.† A common error is to use did instead of had, as in this headline: INCORRECT: [Celebrity] thinks he would be dead now if he didn’t give up alcohol and drugs CORRECT : [Celebrity] thinks he would be dead now if he hadn’t given up alcohol and drugs The person mentioned in the headline actually said (correctly), â€Å"I honestly don’t think I’d be alive if I hadn’t stopped drinking.† The tense required is the past perfect (had + past participle). Mistake 9: Incorrect irregular verb forms Most English verbs form the past and past participle by adding -ed to the base form. For example: walk, walked, (has) walked believe, believed, (has) believed jump, jumped, (has) jumped However, a few high-frequency verbs have irregular past forms, for example: run, ran, (has) run go, went, (has) gone come, came, (has) come Errors with irregular verb forms are becoming common in the media and in articles written by university graduates. Such errors are perhaps evidence that elementary school teachers no longer drill their students on the irregular verb forms. Here are typical errors: INCORRECT: Mary loves to read, has ran for office and has an articulate way of telling it like it is.- Biographical note, KZNU. CORRECT : Mary loves to read, has run for office and has an articulate way of telling it like it is. INCORRECT: Deluna-Martinez is alleged to have went into one student’s account and dropped that student’s classes.- News item, KRCR CORRECT : Deluna-Martinez is alleged to have gone into one student’s account and dropped that student’s classes. INCORRECT: Deep Impact could have just so happened to hit one of these cometesimals, while the gas seen before impact might have came from a different region on the comet with different chemistry.- Scientific article, NASA site. CORRECT : Deep Impact could have just so happened to hit one of these cometesimals, while the gas seen before impact might have come from a different region on the comet with different chemistry. Note: A cometesimal is a â€Å"mini-comet.† Mistake 10: Omitting that when it is needed after say When there is no intervening conjunction, that may be omitted after the verb say: The witness said she overheard the defendant threaten to burn the man’s house down. However, if a conjunction such as after, although, because, before, in addition to, until, or while intervenes between the verb say and its object, that is needed to avoid ambiguity: INCORRECT: Santana said after he stopped recording, he watched for a few more minutes but never saw anyone perform CPR. CORRECT : Santana said that after he stopped recording, he watched for a few more minutes but never saw anyone perform CPR. Now visit Write To Done for 10 more grammar mistakes to avoid, and the Grammarly Blog for yet 10 more! Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:When to Capitalize Animal and Plant NamesThe Many Forms of the Verb TO BE35 Synonyms for Rain and Snow

Timeline of the Directory in the French Revolution

Timeline of the Directory in the French Revolution 1795 January February February 3: The Batavian Republic proclaimed in Amsterdam. February 17: Peace of La Jaunaye: Vendà ©an rebels offered an amnesty, freedom of worship and no conscription. February 21: Freedom of worship returns, but church and state are officially separated. April April 1-2: Germinal uprising demanding the 1793 constitution. April 5: Treaty of Basle between France and Prussia. April 17: The Law of Revolutionary Government is suspended. April 20: Peace of La Prevalaye between Vendà ©an rebels and the central government with the same terms as La Jaunaye. April 26: Representatives en mission abolished. May May 4: Prisoners massacred in Lyons. May 16: Treaty of the Hague between France and the Batavian Republic (Holland). May 20-23: Uprising of Prairial demanding the 1793 constitution. May 31: The Revolutionary Tribunal closed. June June 8: Louis XVII dies. June 24: Declaration of Verona by self declared Louis XVIII; his statement that France must return to the pre-revolutionary system of privilege ends any hope of a return to monarchy. June 27: Quiberon Bay Expedition: British ships land a force of militant à ©migrà ©s, but they fail to break out. 748 are caught and executed. July July 22: Treaty of Basle between France and Spain. August August 22: Constitution of the Year III and the Two Thirds Law passed. September September 23: Year IV begins. October October 1: Belgium annexed by France. October 5: Uprising of Vendà ©miaire. October 7: Law of Suspects cancelled. October 25: Law of 3 Brumaire: à ©migrà ©s and the seditious barred from public office. October 26: Final session of the Convention. October 26-28: The Electoral Assembly of France meets; they elect the Directory. November November 3: The Directory begins. November 16: The Pantheon Club opens. December December 10: A forced loan is called. 1796 1797 1798 November 25: Rome is captured by Neopolitans. 1799 January March March 12: Austria declares war on France. April April 10: The Pope is brought to France as a captive. Elections of the Year VII. May May 9: Reubell leaves the Directory and is replaced by Sieyà ©s. June June 16: Aggravated by France losses and disputes with the Directory, the ruling Councils of France agree to sit permanently. June 17: The Councils overturn the election of Treilhard as Director and replace him with Ghier. June 18: Coup dà ©tat of 30 Prairial, Journee of the Councils: the Councils purge the Directory of Merlin de Douai and La Rà ©vellià ¨re-Là ©peaux. July July 6: Foundation of the neo-Jacobin Manà ¨ge club. July 15: Law of Hostages allows hostages to be taken among à ©migrà ©s families. August August 5: A loyalist uprising occurs near Toulouse. August 6: Forced loan decreed. August 13: Manà ¨ge club shut down. August 15: French General Joubert is killed at Novi, a French defeat. August 22: Bonaparte leaves Egypt to return to France. August 27: An Anglo-Russian expeditionary force lands in Holland. August 29: Pope Pius VI dies in French captivity at Valence. September September 13: The Country in Danger motion is rejected by the Council of 500. September 23: Start of Year VIII. October October 9: Bonaparte lands in France. October 14: Bonaparte arrives in Paris. October 18: The Anglo-Russian expeditionary force flees from Holland. October 23: Lucien Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon, is elected president of the Council of 500. November November 9-10: Napoleon Bonaparte, aided by his brother and Sieyà ¨s, overthrows the Directory. November 13: Repeal of the Law of Hostages. December December 25: Constitution of the Year VIII proclaimed, creating the Consulate. Back to Index Page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6