Here are more audience-choice mistakes that seem to drive a lot of people crazy.
I regretted not including this in the first blog, as it really is one of my biggest pet peeves. We want to hire someone who is great at grammar, and we will buy books that we can use for reference. Use the word "who" when you are talking about people, and "that" when you're talking about objects.
This one got a lot of enthusiastic complaints about people using the word "myself" in sentences like "You will have a meeting with Bob and myself." Myself is a reflexive pronoun, and it's a bit confusing, so I will turn to my favorite source, Grammar Girl, who gives a great explanation about when to use I, me or myself, and when myself can be used to add emphasis, as in "I painted it myself." But the short answer? Please, never say "You'll be meeting with Bob and myself."
I think the problem here is that the words "should have" and "could have" were contracted in spoken English to "should've" and "could've" and some people now think that means "should of" and "could of." The correct expression is "should have," "could have," or "would have" and that is how you write it out.
The way we make words plural in the English language is usually by adding the letter 's' to the word. So egg becomes eggs and CEO becomes CEOs. Apostrophes are not used to pluralize words. Ever.
Fewer is used when you're talking about something you can count, and less is used for things you can't specifically quantify. So if you want to weigh less, you will want to eat fewer candy bars.
This pair got a lot of mention in the other article's comments section. If you're confused on this one, "then" refers to the passing of time, and "than" indicates a comparison. First you need to be better than she is, and then you can win.
This one is kind of tricky. Traditionally, "lend" is a verb and "loan" is a noun. In American English, you go to the bank and ask for a loan, and they lend you money. Or they loan you money, and then you can tell people that they lent you money. Or loaned you money. And now you have a loan to pay off. I told you it was tricky. Our faithful source Grammar Girl has a tip to remember: "loan" and "noun" both have an "o" in them, and "lend" and "verb" both have an "e."
I didn't include this because I rarely see it in cover letters, resumes or business correspondence. But apparently others see it a lot, so here you go. "To" means in the direction of, as in They went to the movies. "Too" means in addition to, as in Our daughter came along, too, or to an excessive degree, as in, We left early because it was too hot in the theater. Of course, none of these are the same as the number two. Duh.
By the way, a simple grammar check caught most of the mistakes here. When in doubt, let your software tell you when you've got it wrong.
A side note about “communication skills” as a job requirement.
In my experience it has always been a euphemism for the skill of sucking up, and never the skill of communicating in English.
I’m still waiting for a good explanation of “as” versus “like”
Thanks - great post.
Don’t leave out
Republican/RINO/Conservative.
They’s used interchangeably but be very different words.
MSM types should of learnt the difference more earlier.
Heart wrenching should be heart rending...as in torn.
Gut wrenching is right.
My one time boss, a U.C. Berkeley graduate, would say “wolla” for “voila”, and “another words” for “in other words”, among many such malapropisms that I should of thought of jotting down.
“and no religion too”? Sorry, Mr Lennon, your Queen would say (or sing) “and no religion, EITHER!”
“Lie, Lady, Lie,” Mr Zimmerman. (Not only better grammatically, but more in line with the female character!
My personal favorite...weather / whether
Tenses. How many here and elsewhere say:
“I would call you if I would have a dime”, instead of “I would call you, if I had a dime”?
It’s a common error of grammatical illiteracy that drives me up the wall.
Quit reading when he misused ‘Dumb’ to mean ignorant.
One thing that always scrunches my eyes is when people enunciate the silent ‘t’ in “often”.
It all makes cents to me.
The most common one here on FR is lose/loose.
I am always forgiving as long as you agree with me.
Oooo Oooo Oooo! (Hand pumping straight up in the air.)
I just thought of another one.
People often misuse the word “myriad” in sentences. For example, when people discuss Ubama they might say, “There are a myriad of reasons to defeat the America-hating Marxist punk.” The correct sentence would be, “There are myriad reasons to defeat the America-hating Marxist punk.”
I speak for my wife when I say the to of us attempt too adhere two proper grammar rules and word usage when we right our thoughts down.
There important so we don’t appear to be ignorant.
Lets rejoice that we have such wonderful people on FR to point these rules out.
Seriesly, its a hugh help.
DANG!! I am STUNED!! This is HUGH and SERIES!! Gotta learn how to mark my peas.....LOL! FR has it’s own language CODE!Thank God! :)
This will be a fun thread - ping for later