USAGE/GRAMMAR PROBLEMS
ITS/IT’S
ITS - Possessive The cat lost its tail.
IT’S – Contraction it + is
 It’s about time you stopped singing
THEIR/THERE/THEY’RE
THEIR-- Possessive pronoun
-- Their house is big. I swam in their pool. The pool belonging to them.
THERE-- Adverb (Place or begins a sentence)
 He is standing over there.
 There are many ways to peel an orange.
THEY’RE – They + are
TO/TOO/TWO
TO -- preposition, infinitive
 I am going to school.
 I like to run.
TOO -- Also an adverb of degree
 I like eggs, too.
 He talks to softly to hear.
TWO -- Number between one and three
 He has two brothers named Ed and Ted.
THAN, THEN
THAN -- Prepositions used in comparisons
 I am faster than her.
THEN -- Reference, noun or adjective
 I won’t be home then, so come by later.
PASSED/PAST
PASSED --Thrown, went by or eclipsed
 The yellow car passed the green one.
PAST – Time gone by, that came before the present
 It was a ghost of Christmas Past.
YOUR/YOU’RE
YOUR – Possessive pronoun like their
 I like your house.
YOU’RE – You + are contraction
 You’re my best friend in the world.
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EXCEPT/ACCEPT
I accepted his marriage proposal.
 to accept or receive willingly
I like every color except orange.
 every color but or other than orange
ALLOWED/ALOUD
ALLOWED means you were given permission to do something.
ie. I am allowed to come to your house this weekend.
ALOUD means you read out loud so your peers can hear you.
ie. We read “The Secret Life of Bees” aloud in class.
NEW/KNEW
NEW is like something that is brand new or not seen before, as in a NEW car
KNEW is something that you did know or understand in the past tense
I knew the Redskins would win the Super Bowl.
THREW/THROUGH
THREW – verb I threw the ball.
 He threw the game.
THROUGH- preposition I went through the window.
 I am through with the friendship.
LOSING VS. LOOSING
 You were on a losing team.
 Loosen is something you do when your collar is too tight.
Loosing you probably won’t use in a sentence
COULD’VE/SHOULD’VE/WOULD’VE/MIGHT’VE
 It’s could’ve or could have
NEVER use could of
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WHERE/WERE/WEAR/WE’RE
Where begins a sentence
 Where are my favorite socks?
 Where do you live?
OR
 I know where you are hiding.
WERE is a to be verb
 We were better off without each other.
 I wish we were famous.
WE’RE is a contraction for we + are
We’re glad to meet you.
WEAR means to have on clothing
I like to wear tank tops.
TOWARD/TOWARDS
 Use toward—get rid of the S
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Y BECOMES IES
Singular
Strategy
Sky
Try
Story
Plural
Strategies
Skies
Tries
Stories
WHEN PLURALIZING MOST WORDS ADD S
Singular
Boy
Duck
Kitten
Plural
Boys
Ducks
Kittens
WHEN SHOWING POSSESSION ADD ‘S
Singular
Plural
John
John’s
Boy
Boy’s
FOR PLURAL POSSESSIVE ADD ‘S
Singular
Plural
Boys
Boys’
Cats
Cats’
A LOT
A LOT is a lot of words, two in fact
NOT a lot
NOT allot
LONG VOWELS – Diner, Kite
 Vowels become short with multiple consonants after them
 Dinner, kitten
Stop becomes stopped; stoped is a long O sound
Jam becomes jammed; otherwise it would be jamed or james with a ‘d’
Put an ‘N’ on an ‘A’ before a word starting with a vowel
WRONG
RIGHT
A ate a orange.
I ate an orange.
John loves to eat a apple a day.
John loves to eat an apple a day.
REMEMBER YOUR APOSTROPHES
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For possessives and conjunctions
that’s = that + is
it’s
= it + is
what’s up
can’t
let’s
lets
= what + is up
= can + not
= let + us
= plural verb for let (allows)
 I hope she lets us go to the Pizza Hut.
 Let’s hope we can go to the movies.
PAY = PAID
Pay – Past tense is PAID, not PAYED
Try – Past tense is TRIED
Fry = fried
Apply = applied
Supply = supplied
BECAUSE
NOT becuz or b/c
WRONG – Me and my friend went home.
RIGHT -- My friend and I went home.
It’s used as the subject, not an object.
POSSESSIVE
whose
your
its
their
CONTRACTION
who’s
you’re
it’s
they’re
DO NOT END PAPERS WITH “In conclusion …”
WASTED WORDS:
VERY THINGS STUFF
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CAPITALIZATION
Capitalize names and “I” every time.
Proper nouns, proper names, first word in a sentence
Indians Niagara Falls Captain Hook
Labor Day
New York Times
ALSO: Running tires my legs.
Paris, France
FREQUENT SPELLING ERRORS
Taken for granted
Not granite
I used
Not I use to go skiing.
to go skiing
I probably will go to the dance
I meant to see you
Not, I probally will go to the dance.
Not, I ment to see you.
RESTAURANT
GOVERNMENT
SEPARATE
TRULY
RECOMMEND
ARGUMENT
SOPHOMORE
REGARDLESS
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GRAMMAR FAIRYTALE
NAME:
DATE:
PERIOD: 1 2 3 4
__________/27 POINTS
DIRECTIONS: Circle the proper word among the choices underlined and boldfaced. Use the sentence
to help you choose the correct word in each situation.
Once upon a time their
there they’re lived a an unhappy girl named Cinderella. Every day her evil
stepmother and stepsisters gave her many chores to
do what her stepmother wanted, accept
her, Olga would complain, “Your
would assign Cinderella alot
too two do. Cinderella tryed tried her hardest to
except that every time her stepmother Olga passed past by
You’re not swabbing the floor correctly!” Then Than Olga
a lot more chores to too two do. Cinderella did as told until one day
when Cinderellas Cinderella’s Cinderellas’ conscience said, “That’s enough!” and she decided to leave her
evil stepmother’s castle. Cinderella wandered down the street with nowhere
Her hungry stomach directed her toward
nowere to too two go.
towards a dinner diner at the street corner. To her
surprise, the lot next to the small eatery was for sale.
Cinderella had a
an brilliant idea. She quickly ran inside and payed paid the man for his eatery.
Cinderella should
of should’ve thought of this sooner. She would open a maid service in the building
thanks to her stepsisters’ss
stepsister’s stepsisters’ techniques that they had taught her. It
would be called “Cinderella’s cleaning
was lucrative, bringing in over to
company Cleaning Company.” Cinderella’s business
two too thousand dollars a week. There Their They’re wasn’t a
day that went by that Cinderella’s stepsisters didn’t think of their
being nice to Cinderella before she struck it rich. There
there they’re misfortune at not
they’re their sorry for the way they acted,
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but its
it’s too to two late now. They preferred life much better when they were younger than then
right now. They never ment
were suppose
meant to be mean, but they were.They just acted like they thought they
supposed to back then than.
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YOUR GRAMMAR/USAGE STORY
NAME:
DATE:
PERIOD: 1 2 3 4
________/54 POINTS
DIRECTIONS: Write a story using the following words correctly in the sentences. UNDERLINE each word
and cross the word off your list when you use so you don’t do it twice. You can use the words in any order,
just be sure to use them correctly in the sentences. Your story topic is completely up to you as long as it is
appropriate for school.
WORDS:
there their they’re
to two too
your you’re
then than
its it’s
Jim’s The Thompsons’
lets let’s
who’s whose
except accept
past passed
threw through
where were wear
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ORIGINAL GRAMMAR/USAGE
STORY GRADE SHEET
NAME:
DATE:
PERIOD: 1 2 3 4
WORD
2 POINTS EACH
1. there
2. their
3. they’re
4. to
5. two
6. too
7. your
8. you’re
9. then
10. than
11. its
12. it’s
13. Jim’s
14. The Thompsons’
15. lets
16. let’s
17. who’s
18. whose
19. except
20. accept
21. past
22. passed
23. threw
24. through
25. where
26. were
27. wear
____________
____________
____________
____________
____________
____________
____________
____________
____________
____________
____________
____________
____________
____________
____________
____________
____________
____________
____________
____________
____________
____________
____________
____________
____________
____________
____________
POINTS_________/54
__________/10 PROPER SETUP
GS at top centered/SS name, etc.
Center title, DS document, # pages
__________/20 PROPER QUOTES
Punctuation, capitals, commas
Attribution – said …/ etc.
__________/20 NO WEAK VERBS
am, is, are, was, were, be, been,
being, have, has, had, got, get
TOTAL POINTS ____/104
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