Common English Grammar and
Usage Problems
The following collection of common grammar errors and usage problems may be used as a general reference.
To accept is to take: I can accept no money for this chicken.
To except is to omit: I can except no one from the rule except you or that chicken.
The verb affect means to influence: Your chicken will affect many people.
The verb effect means cause: Your chicken will effect a new procedure.
The noun effect means result: Your chicken will produce a good effect.
Use afraid of and frightened by, rather than frightened of: Ahab had been frightened by a chicken, and was afraid
of them ever since.
To aggravate is to make worse, not to irritate: It irritated the chicken that she went out in the rain and aggravated
her cold.
Use all right, not alright: We will be all right if the chickens arrive.
An allusion is a reference: His comment was an allusion to the chicken in the Iliad.
An illusion is a deception: The bas relief of the chicken gave the illusion of depth.
In ordinary sentences, do not substitute the ampersand (&) or the mathematical plus symbol (+) for the
coordinating conjunction and.
Bad is an adjective: The bad decision ruined the chicken.
Badly is an adverb: The bad chicken did not swim badly.
The reason is not because; the reason is that: The reason we think carefully is that we regret our errors.
Something is between two: This secret is between you and the chicken.
Something is among three or more: Divide the fish among the five chickens.
We bring toward, but we take away: If you take someone’s chicken by mistake, you must bring it back to him or
her.
Can means able to: You can repair a chicken if you know how.
May means are permitted to: Yes, you may leave the chicken.
Not could of or should of, but could have or should have: I could have chased chickens, and I
should have chased chickens. (We sometimes see could’ve as the contraction of could have and
should’ve as the contraction of should have.)
Disinterested means without prejudice because of having no personal interest in something: We need a disinterested
judge to try this case fairly. Uninterested means without interest in the sense of being bored: The chicken was
uninterested in the bug, and began to daydream. A disinterested judge could find a chicken very interesting.
Use done only with a helping verb: I have done nothing to the chicken.
Don’t is the contraction of “do not”: We don’t like chickens.
Doesn’t is the contraction of “does not”: He doesn’t like chickens.
Don’t use don’t for singular subjects: He don’t like chickens.
To emigrate is to migrate out: The chicken emigrated from Russia.
To immigrate is to migrate in: The chicken immigrated to Puerto Rico.
Use farther for distance: Her chicken went farther than his did.
Use further for time: We will consider this chicken further.
Use feel bad rather than feel badly: The chicken felt bad.
Use fewer for countable things: There are fewer chickens.
Use less for uncountable amount: There is less sugar for the chickens.
If you are enumerating elements in your essay, use first and second, rather than firstly and secondly. The latter
terms with their -ly suffix have a supercilious, pedantic ring to them that is undesirable. In fact, Thomas Hardy even
satirized the use of such language in one of his poems, “Channel Firing.” In the poem, a skeleton wakes up in the
grave and muses satirically about someone he knows, “Parson Thirdly.”
Fortuitous means by chance: A fortuitous circumstance occurred with the chicken.
Fortunate means lucky: A fortunate condition resulted for the chickens.
Good is an adjective: The good chicken swam her fastest time.
Well is usually an adverb: The good chicken swam well.
Well can sometimes be an adjective: He is not a well chicken.
Clothes, when put out to dry, are hung. People, when strung up to die, are hanged. Oedipus enters the palace to find
that Jocasta has hanged herself, unlike the chicken.
Hopefully is an adverb meaning “full of hope”; it should not be used as a substitute for I hope: I hope that the
chicken will strive hopefully for knowledge.
Note the difference between ideas and ideals. Ideas are concepts, thoughts, and so forth. We could discuss the
philosophical ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche. Ideals are standards, goals to be attained, ideas of excellence or
perfection. Both ideas and ideals are mental, but we debate ideas while striving for the ideal.
It is best to use the word impact only as a noun, and not as a verb, in discussing the effect of individuals on history.
When we say that x “impacted” y, this usage has an unfortunate, unpleasant medical connotation that is undesirable.
The preferable word is affected. We affect others, rather than impact them, and when we affect them, this has an
impact.
To imply is to suggest: He implied that chickens were to blame.
To infer is to deduce: We inferred that chickens were being blamed.
It’s is the contraction of it is: It’s fun to understand chickens.
Its is a possessive pronoun: The chicken chomped its beak.
Use kind of rather than kind of a: It seemed to be some kind of nose.
Use lend as a verb: Lend me money for a chicken.
Use loan as a noun: Give me a loan for a chicken.
To lie (v.i.) is to rest: I will lie here in the shade near the chickens.
To lay (v.t.) is to put: I will lay the hammer here near the chicken.
Use like as a preposition: We have good chickens like these.
Use as as a conjunction: We have good chickens, as you have.
Literally means actually, not figuratively. You could say, “We literally left within two minutes,” but you could not
say, “We literally vanished.” If you did not physically vanish, then you did not literally vanish.
In the past we used the terms man and mankind, and even the possessive pronoun his, to refer to all human beings,
both male and female. Today, our sensitivities have improved, and we try to avoid defaulting to the masculine
gender when we intend to express something which also includes women. Other terms, such as human beings,
humanity, persons, and even the compound pronouns such as his or her sound more accurate and more fair.
Myself and yourself should be used as reflexive or intensive pronouns rather than as direct objects. “I, myself,
believed the chicken” is correct usage, but “She asked John and myself if we had the chicken” is not. It would be
correct to say, “She asked John and me if we had the chicken.”
Nauseous means sickening: The chicken was nauseous to us.
Nauseated means sick at the stomach: I was nauseated by the chicken.
Number is for countables: There were a number of chickens there.
Amount is for uncountables: There was an enormous amount of tension among the chickens.
Use off rather than off of: The ball bounced off the backboard near the chicken.
Phenomenon is singular and phenomena is plural: The most interesting phenomenon of all the meteorological
phenomena was the tornado.
Save plus for mathematics and use in addition to in most other situations: They wanted burgers; in addition to that,
they wanted chicken.
Precipitate means hasty, and precipitous means steep: The chicken made a precipitate decision to descend the
precipitous path.
We can’t relate to relate to. The phrase relate to is a vague colloquialism. Instead of saying that many people
relate to J.D. Salinger’s character Holden Caulfield, say that many people understand Holden, or that they find that
Holden’s struggles remind them of their own struggles, or something specific. To say we relate to Holden is vague.
In what way do we relate? Do we feel the same alienation from conventional society that he feels? Do we have
dreams similar to his dream of being the catcher in the rye? Do we love our little brothers and sisters? Do we feel
that his language expresses our own view of the world? Do we feel ourselves losing our emotional our psychological
health? There are so many thousands of relationships that simply to say one thing relates to another is almost to
communicate nothing at all; you have to use a specific word that names that specific relationship.
Use raise transitively: The chickens will attempt to raise the Titanic.
Use rise intransitively: The chicken began to rise slowly through the air.
Use regardless rather than irregardless.
Respectfully is with respect: He spoke respectfully of his chicken.
Respectively is in sequence: He spoke of his father, his brother, and his chicken, respectively.
Use since rather than seeing as how: Since you feel that way, I will find the chicken myself.
You sit (v.i.) down in a chair: She was sitting there near the chicken. You set (v.t.) down a book: She was setting the
chicken on the step.
Someone is not they. Rather than saying, “Someone dropped their headphones,” say, “Someone dropped a pair of
headphones.” Use they or their only if you mean a group of people.
You teach people things, and you learn subjects: you do not learn people things: If you would like to learn about
chickens, I can teach you.
Than is a conjunction: We have more chickens than you have.
Then is an adverb: We will go now; you go then.
Them should be used as an object pronoun, not as an adjective: And so, my friends, ask not when you can have
them chickens, ask when you can have those chickens.
They’re is the contraction of “they are”: They’re reading now.
Their is a possessive pronoun: They’re reading their books.
There is a place: They’re reading their books there.
Use this rather than this here: This chicken bit me on this foot.
To is a preposition or an infinitive: She went to Boston to think about chickens.
Too is an adverb meaning “also” or “too much”: I sleep too much, too.
Two is a number: Two chickens twisted twine in the twilight.
Tortuous means full of twists: a tortuous highway.
Torturous means full of torture: a torturous ordeal.
Use try to rather than try and: Please try to help today.
Something is either unique, one of a kind, or it is not. There are no degrees of uniqueness, and so nothing can be
very unique.
Use way off rather than ways off: He was a long way off.
Who is a subject pronoun: Who is here?
Whom is an object pronoun: To whom do you wish to speak?
Who refers to people: It was they who followed the chicken.
That and which refer to objects: Which chicken is that?
Who’s is the contraction of who and is. Who’s going to think about the chickens?
Whose is a pronoun or adjective: Whose chickens these are, I think I know.