First, I promise this won't be painful. Second, no disrespect is meant to anyone.
It's been a long time since many of us were in grade school, and some were not lucky enough to have Mrs. Snodgrass in grade 6, an extremely tough teacher who taught me more in one year than I learned in the next 6. Her lessons have stuck with me.
And I've noticed some fairly common spelling mistakes here in the Rain both in blogs and in comments --not complicated words like "antidisestablishmentarianism" (my 8-year-old's favourite word, by the way), but rather words we use every day, and more than once every day.
So, here's my top 3 list of common spelling mistakes for all of you writers out there:
1. THERE, THEIR or THEY'RE
THERE -- As in, "Put the credit card down, ma'am, in that place, over there."
THEIR -- This is possessive, as in, "This credit card belongs to them; it is their credit card."
THEY'RE -- This is a contraction, meaning it is a shortened form of two words put together. The apostrophe replaces the letter that has been removed when the two words were put together. In this case, the two words are "They are." Contracted, it's "they're," as in, "They're telling her to stop shopping! Yes, they really are!"
Using them all together in a sentence, it would go something like, "They're pulling a shopping intervention on her. Her husband wants her to stop using their credit card. They're telling her to put the weapon credit card down over there."
2. ITS and IT'S
ITS -- Similar to the previous example, "its" is possessive, as in, "The muddy footprints on the couch came from the dog. The dog is leaving its footprints all over the place."
IT'S -- This is a contraction again. It is a combination of two words, "it" and "is" or "it" and "has". The apostrophe takes the place of the letter that has been removed when the two words were put together. As in, "It is no wonder Tanya has lost her mind. What with her boys, her husband and her dog leaving their muddy prints all over the place, it's a wonder she didn't lose it before this. It's been a real riot at her place lately."
Using them all together in a sentence, it would be, "The dog is leaving its muddy footprints on the couch, and it's compromising Tanya's mental health."
3. YOUR and YOU'RE
YOUR -- Similar to the previous examples, "your" is possessive, as in "Shall we play Rock Band at your house or mine?"
YOU'RE -- Again, this is a contraction, meaning it is the shortened form of two words put together: "you" and "are." The apostrophe takes the place of the letter that was removed when the two words were put together. As in, "You are the best Rock Band guitar player I have ever seen. You're like Jimmy Page, baby."
All together now: "Are you sure you're not Jimmy Page? Can I have your autograph anyway?"
Tip: When in doubt about whether you need the version of the word with the apostrophe or not, try separating it into two words (like they are, it is or you are -- whatever the case may be). If you CAN separate it into two words, then use the version with the apostrophe. If you can't, then it is the version without the apostrophe that you need to use.
Happy writing.
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