Warren Clements, author of the Globe and Mail's Wordplay column, has compiled a list of the top 10 misused words that readers send to him. He does a good job of explaining the grammatical rules behind each correct usage, but doesn't provide any easier ways to remember them. So I'd like to humbly offer up a few mnemonics I've collected over the years.
1. Its/It's: "It's" means "it is". The apostrophe replaces the "i" in "is". Therefore, if you see the apostrophe, mentally replace it with "is". If the sentence still makes sense, you've used the correct word.
2. Who/whom: Rework the sentence so that the person referred to by who/whom is referred to by "he" or "him". If "he" fits, the correct answer is "who". If "him" fits, the answer is "whom." The mnemonic is that "him" and "whom" both end in M. To use the example given in the column: "This is the man who(m) I believe knows the answer." So let's rework that to accomodate a "he" or a "him": "I believe ______ knows the answer." The word "he" fits in the blank, the word "him" does not. Therefore, the sentence takes a "who".
7. I/me: This item deals with the habit of saying "you and I" every time you have the second person and the first person joined by a conjuction, regardless of whether it's the subject or the object. "Just between you and ___", "...for you and ___", etc. There's a simple test to figure out which one is correct: handle the pronouns one at a time. "This is a good experience for you and ____". So take the "you" out, and you end up with "This is a good experience for me." When you do the pronouns one at a time, it becomes obvious which one is correct.
8. Discreet/discrete: Discrete has two discrete E's.
4 comments:
Good list and explanations.
Do you know, I'm not sure I even knew there were two words discrete/discreet. That is, two discrete words. I wonder how many times I've misspelled one of them without knowing it! Not good for a writer.
Its and it's have to be number one on anyone's list. I think most people don't even realize they are two different words.
My personal favourite is using an apostrophe for plurals. Plural's. It is everywhere.
My rule for apostrophes: you have to be able to defend your apostrophe to the death. If you can't explain exactly what the apostrophe is doing, take it out.
I think this answers the question adequately.
Incidentally, I/S, I changed to Google Reader and yours was the only blog to miss the change. I had to re-subscribe -- not sure why. Thought you'd like to know.
It might be because I switched to new blogger recently, but I really don't know. My control over my feed is limited to having once checked a checkbox to create it.
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