Improve Your Self-Published Book: Commonly Misused Words and Phrases
- Admin
- Jun 26, 2018
- 2 min read
Their/ There/ They’re
“Their” is a possessive adjective, “there” is a location, and “they’re” is a contraction of “they” and “are.”
“They’re looking for their dog over there.”
Your/ You’re
“Your” is a possessive adjective while “you’re” is a contraction of “you” and “are.”
“You’re looking at your phone a lot.”
Its/ It’s
“It’s” is a contraction of “it” and “is” and “its” is a possessive adjective.
“It’s a beautiful day.”
“The dog chased its tail.”
Who/ Whom
“Who” refers to the subject of a sentence and “whom” is the object of a verb or preposition. If you would respond to a question with “him,” “her,” or “them,” use “whom.” If you would respond with “he,” “she,” or “they,” use “who.”
“Whom do you love?”
“I love her.”
“Who is at the door?”
“He is at the door.”
“First-come, First served”
The incorrect form of this phrase, “first-come, first-serve” implies that the people arriving first will be serving first, not that they will be served first.
Affect/ Effect
“Affect” is a verb and “effect” is a noun.
“What was the effect of the wind?”
“The wind affected the flight plan.”
Me/ I
“I” is a subject and “me” is an object. If something is being done to you, you’re the object, so use “me.”
“I am so tall that the door frame will hit me.”
“For all intents and purposes”
The incorrect form of this phrase, “for all intensive purposes,” comes from how “intents and” sounds when said quickly.
“Dos and Don’ts”
The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) prefers “Dos and Don’ts” because otherwise there would be two different apostrophe uses in the same phrase: one to make “do” plural and one to make “do not” a contraction (“don’t”). In order to be consistent, you could (theoretically) write “do’s and don’t’s” but CMOS prefers to restrict apostrophes to just the one contraction apostrophe.
i.e./ e.g.
“I.e.” is an abbreviation of the Latin “id est,” meaning, “that is.” Use “i.e.” if you’re rephrasing something in simpler terms. “E.g.” is an abbreviation of the Latin “exempli gratia,” which means “for example. It is preferred by the CMOS to write out the English translation in formal writing, but the abbreviations could also be used as long as a comma follows.
“Couldn’t care less”/ “Could care less”
If you’re expressing that you don’t care at all, use “couldn’t care less.” “Could care less” implies that it is possible to care less, and therefore you do care (at least a little).
Or/ Nor
“Either” is paired with “or,” and its negative counterpart “neither” is paired with “nor.”
“Either get a pet or don’t get a pet.” “Neither of them ate nor slept.”
But/ And
“But” implies that what follows may somewhat contradict the previous text. “And” implies that the two phrases coexist.
“It was a difficult test but I passed.”
“I love you and I want to get married.”
“Piqued my interest”
“Peaked my interest” is a common misspelling of this phrase because “pique,” to raise interest, and “peak,” a mountaintop, are homophones.
Comments