10 Commonly Misused Words and Expressions
By guest contributor PJ Feinstein. Photography by Torrie.
Our blogging voices may be unique, but what we should all have in common is good grammar. Readers do notice if you mistakenly use your instead of you’re—and you’d be surprised how often I catch that grammatical error. If you want to take your writing to the next level, start by refreshing yourself on some basic rules of grammar and reviewing these commonly misused words and expressions.
Alright/All right
Although you may see alright used in informal writing, it is properly written as two words—all right.
Compare to/Compare with
Use compare to when pointing out similarities between objects: “My fluffy dog has been compared to a stuffed animal.”
Use compare with when pointing out differences: “I have fewer days off in November compared with last month.”
Effect/Affect
Effect, as a noun, means “result.” “The effects of this anti-aging cream are amazing!”
Affect, a verb, means “to influence.” “His charm does not affect me.”
Farther/Further
Farther refers to measurable distance: “I can run one-mile farther than my husband.”
Further is used for abstract lengths: “I plan to research the topic further.”
Its/It’s
Its is a possessive pronoun: “See the hot pink car across the street? I like its color.”
It’s is a contraction of it is: “See the hot pink car across the street? It’s such an ugly color!”
Lay/Lie
As present tense verbs, lay requires a subject and a direct object; lie does not. “I lay my jewelry on the dresser.”
“Excuse me, while I lie down on the sofa for a few minutes.”
Less/Fewer
Less refers to a hypothetical quantity: “I like this song less than I did yesterday.”
Fewer refers to a number: “I have fewer Twitter followers than I did yesterday.”
May/Might
Use may when something is likely to happen: “I may grab a coffee this afternoon.”
Use might to imply uncertainty or an unlikely outcome: “I might finish this blog post tonight.”
Than/Then
Than refers to a comparison: “I’m taller than my sister.”
Then has to do with time: “I’ll eat dinner and then watch TV.”
Your/You’re
Your is the possessive form of you: “Your hair is so pretty!”
You’re is a contraction of you are: “You’re so pretty!”
Nov 15, 2012
Reader Comments (10)
There's one more!
The expression is "I couldn't care less" NOT "I could care less"
That one drives me crazy!
Wow! The fact that you have to post this is pretty sad. It drives me crazy when people make some of the mistakes above especially when I feel like they are easily avoidable by anyone with a 9th grade education. I hate to sound like a snob but if you don't know the difference between affect and effect you need to go back to school or buy a dictionary. ;)
While it is shocking that some people still get these things mixed up, I am very glad to see helpful posts like this. The Oatmeal did something similar a while ago and it made me laugh.
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling
Loose/lose: I decided to LOSE weight and now my clothes are LOOSE!
let's not forget the classic "would have" which all too commonly becomes "would of" (that one is extra cringe-worthy for me). thanks for a great and helpful post, pj!
I'm such a grammar nerd. :) All of the other comments are dead on. Another one I hate is when calendar is misspelled. It's not calender! Thanks for this post!! I loved it!
How about Stationery?.... as a Letterpress printer it kills me when people spell it Stationary!!
Thanks for sharing more commonly mixed up words and expressions. Stationary/Stationery is a huge pet peeve of mine, too! Maybe I need to start writing Part 2...
This one may be a little more esoteric, but I really hate it when I see "Walla!" or some other oddly phonetic spelling of the French word "voilà!"
It's only cute to use it in your writing if you can spell it!
I think sometimes people do know the difference, but mistakes are just made. The more we judge the littlest of things, the more they feel they can't use their voice in fear its not the right one. I made one while spilling my heart in a post and of all the comments I received (324), the one about a tiny spelling error is the only one I can remember.