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8 Common Grammatical Errors That Students Make
Many students around the world find grammar difficult. Even native English speakers have a hard time due to the language’s various rules.
Most students consider themselves good at grammar. Although their self-confidence is admirable, it doesn’t negate the fact that they often commit spelling gaffes.
And it all comes down to carelessness and surrounding. Some of these errors come from conversational English, which features less strict attention to technical grammar rules. Other times, these errors are a result of carelessness.
The difficulty in grammar usage is why many people go to make an essay for me platforms for help with their writing tasks.
This article will address eight common grammatical mistakes that most students make in academic writing.
Singular and Plural Nouns
One of the major mistakes most students make is mixing up countable and uncountable nouns. If a noun is countable, you can pluralize it. If the noun is uncountable, then it has only the singular form.
But many students do not know when to pluralize nouns, and such errors can affect their work negatively. They can also hinder the reader from getting an accurate measurement of the nouns in question.
- Correct: “I have two suitcases.“
- Incorrect: “I have two luggages.“
- Correct: “I have two books.”
- Incorrect: “I have two bottles of waters.”
In the scenarios above, ‘luggage’ and ‘water’ are uncountable while ‘suitcase’ and ‘book’ are countable.
Although non-native speakers struggle with this problem, native speakers with poor English skills might experience the pitfall too.
Using Commonly Confused Words
Maneuvering words that sound the same but have different meanings can be tricky. Students find it hard to differentiate between such terms. And when these students muddle up words, it affects how readers interpret their text.
Some examples are:
| Affect | Affect means to change or influence something, and it is a verb. For example: “Lying affects trust.” |
| Effect | Effect refers to the impact of a change (not the change itself), and it is a noun. For example: “The effect of lying is broken trust.” |
The Singular and Plural Use of the Word “They”
The word “they” can be used as both singular and plural. Besides, the pronoun is gender-neutral (neuter pronoun). Here are the two ways to use ‘they’ in a sentence:
- They (singular): Refers to a third person who has an unspecified gender.
For example:
“Although the poor student took a loan, they refused to pay tuition.”
- They (plural): Used to reference groups of individuals or things.
For example:
“John and Sarah are in love. They have a crush on each other.”
Comma Errors
Commas are crucial punctuations in written sentences. Writers use them to indicate short pauses in sentences to clarify exposition and narration. Commas also point out hidden subjects in a sentence. Using this punctuation makes articles less monotonous and more pleasing to readers.
For example:
- Incorrect: “In a bid to please their professors they decided to dress like old-timers.“
- Correct: “In a bid to please their professors, they decided to dress like old-timers.”
“They” is the subject in the sample sentence. Many people could have missed it if not for the comma before it. In essence, commas are necessary when writing compound sentences.
Your vs. You’re
This error is a direct consequence of pop culture influence. Nowadays, young people find it cool to replace “your” with “you’re.” As a result, this bad habit bleeds into your formal writing with time.
Examples of bad usage include:
- Incorrect: “Your very beautiful.”
- Correct: “You’re very beautiful.”
Other common mistakes within this family include “their vs. there” and “than vs. then.”
Sentence Fragments
Sentence fragments don’t have independent clauses and usually stand alone. But because people wrongly put them before or after independent clauses, they go undetected.
Most students do not know that a string of words doesn’t become a sentence unless it contains a verb and subject. Fragments look like sentences, but they usually don’t have verbs and subjects. And they mostly occur in speech as an abrupt ‘pause’ in thought.
But, writers mistake sentence fragments for complete sentences, and these errors pass unedited.
For example:
- Incorrect: “Daniel reads. Bothered he will fail.”
- Correct: “Daniel reads because he is bothered that he will fail.”
“Bothered he will fail” is a sentence fragment, so you shouldn’t use it as a standalone sentence.
Subject-Verb Agreement
When students don’t understand the subject-verb agreement rules, they make many grammatical errors. The subjects and verbs in a sentence must agree in number. If the subject of a sentence refers to one person or thing, the verb must be singular. Similarly, plural subjects should also have plural verbs.
For example:
- Incorrect: “These tips is vital for students seeking to be better writers.”
- Correct: “These tips are vital for students seeking to be better writers.”
Apostrophe Confusions
An apostrophe is a punctuation mark that shows possession. It has different rules guiding when the letter “s” can come after it and when it can’t. These rules aren’t difficult to grasp, but not knowing how to use apostrophes can change the meaning of entire sentences.
When writing, don’t use apostrophes for possessive pronouns like mine, ours, yours, theirs, etc.
Example of apostrophe usage:
- Incorrect: “My brothers yacht is bigger than his house.”
- Correct: “My brother’s yacht is bigger than his house.”
Also, don’t use an apostrophe before the final “-s” in a plural word. This mistake is called the greengrocer’s apostrophe due to its ubiquity in signposts (for example, “Hot Bun’s and Ice Cream’s“).
Grammar rules also don’t allow writers to use apostrophes for plural numerals and years.
For example:
- Incorrect: He lived in the 1990’s.
- Correct: He lived in the 1990s.
To Sum It All Up
It may be challenging to understand grammar rules at first. But, by practicing sentence compositions, students can become better writers. Online tools are also available for students to improve their writing.
So, identify the common grammar errors and use the knowledge to keep your writing free of embarrassing mistakes.