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English grammar does have its ‘special cases’ that make the learning confusing and frustrating, but today I’m not going to talk about those ones. I’m going to talk about the ones that have a very simple and specific rule and you really SHOULD know them, and there SHOULDN’T be any excuse from now on to get them wrong.
So here you are:
- Who, which or that?
“Who” (or “whom”) refers to persons.
“Which” refers to animals or things, never to persons.
“That” can refer to either persons or things.
Examples:
The girl who was hungry.
The dog which bit the mailman.
The bus that goes to the station.
- Do the quotes go after or before the period?
Put quotation marks after a period or comma.
Put quotes before a colon.
Put quotes after a question mark unless the entire sentence is a question.
This is a US English standard. British English usage can differ.
Examples:
He asked, “Are you hungry?”
She replied, “Yes.”
Did she say, “Yes”?
- There, their, or they’re
“There” is used in two ways. It can specify a place. It can also be used as an expletive or empty word to start a sentence.
“Their” is used as a possessive form of “they.”
“They’re” is short for “they are.”
Examples:
There are nine planets in the solar system.
The two boys raced their bikes.
They’re both tired after riding so far.
- Its or It’s
The possessive form of “it” is “its,” not “it’s.”
Use “it’s” only when it means “it is.”
Unless you can replace “it’s” with “it is,” use “its.” Never use “its’.”
Examples:
It’s raining today.
The dog wagged its tail.
So there you are. Now it’s official. There shouldn’t be any reason now for these mistakes to continue to happen.
Let me know if you have more common grammar mistakes that annoy you. Maybe we all live in a better world if these things are fixed……juuuuuuuust kidding….
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