Five Grammatical Errors that Make You ... | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

I have trouble with affect vs effect, as well as than vs then.

Personally, I don't see the big deal about dangling participles. The two examples included in that article aren't confusing at all. While the first example can be re-written relatively easily, I spent a couple minutes trying to fix the example of the server review but could only make sentences that were unwieldy.

I spend a decent amount of type checking for typos and grammar mistakes in my posts, but I know I still make mistakes. I probably would have the most mistakes with dangling participles because I don't really pay attention to them. I just try to write like I would speak, and even if it's not grammatically perfect it doesn't bother me.

I pretty much just post my article up, and my wife then look at it like "really, do you even know how to read?!"

Ok, not really, but I read it over twice before publishing. I did have my wife (pretend) say she would divorce me if I mixed up then and than. ;)

I know the difference between "then" and "than" but I still slip up on them sometimes.

Poor spelling bothers me more than poor grammar.  I think way more people try to "loose" weight than "lose" weight any more.  That error seems obvious to me so I don't know why so many people get it wrong. It may be, because they see the wrong version so often it seems right.

Affect vs effect is my biggest challenge….one day I'll figure it out!

 TacklingOurDebt said:

That happened to me on a resume during college after I mailed it to like 25 different companies. Months later I caught the error

I have one worse than that.  I once worked at a hospital and had an Outlook signature that automatically went out on every e-mail I sent.  Probably 25 e-mails a day for three or four months until one of my co-workers pointed out that I had misspelled hospital.

I sometimes have trouble with that one as well, Jacob.

Into expresses movement toward or inside of something. –> "Turn your car into this driveway."

In to is adverb and preposition. –> "She turned in to a vampire."

Jennifer Lynn said:

A grammatical mistake I've noticed quite a few times in the PF blogosphere (I've even made this one myself!): principle and principal.

That is remarkable.  PF bloggers should know the difference between principle and principal.

One that bothers me is when people say "anyways".  This is a very common mistake, but it truly is a mistake.  Say "anyway" instead.

I overlook most grammatical errors as I'm no expert in the field.  I can't stand pronunciation mistakes.  Thankfully we can't read those!.

maria@moneyprinciple said:

I am probably so sensitive about all that because being a 'foreigner' and having to write in your second language means that people are very unforgiving – where native speakers were experimenting with language I was making grammer mistakes. So had to get this grammar thing right!

That's a very good point. I've probably been guilty of that in the past, although I hope not too much! In my line of work, I do work with a lot of Hispanic immigrants, I try to help them with their grasp on the English language if they seem to want it, an in return, I tend to ask questions to get a better grasp on my limited Spanish.