Trouble Times Four

Over the years I have found that having a gimmick to remember things works well for me. I’d like to share some of them to help you choose the right form of these four sets of words that cause many people grief. 

1. their, they’re, there
2. your, you’re
3. its, it’s
4. lets, let’s

First the three kinds of their/there/they’re.

They’re = they are. We use they’re when we mean the short way of saying “they are.”

They’re my best friends.

They’re is correct because you could say, “They are” in place of “they’re.”

***

Their = owning something

That is their new red car.

This word is often misspelled, so remember that it has the word “the“ at the beginning (THEir).

***

There = Not here, but over there, farther away. The word “there” has “here” in it.

If you think of it as “not here,” you will always remember how to spell there and which one is the correct form of “there/they’re/their.

There is a plant in the pot.

The plant is over there, in the pot.

***

You’re = you are

You’re the one for me. Use you’re if you can replace the word with you are.

***

Your = ownership. Think of our (belongs to us), and so your (which has “our” in it) belongs to you.

Your mother loves you.

***

It’s = it is

If you can replace it’s with it is, then you have the correct form of its/it’s.

It’s a beautiful day.

***

Its – belonging to “it”

The car stood with its door open. (The door belongs to the car.)

***

Let’s = let us (the apostrophe takes the place of the letter “u.”

Let’s go to the dance.

***

Lets – allows

I’ll come if my mom lets me.

***

Let’s hope that this post helps make life easier for you and lets you write with more confidence.

It’s easy to see its benefits once you start using the correct words.

You’re going to feel your confidence boosted.

Your friends over there will be proud to know that they’re going to have a good writer as their friend.

How We Speak

How we speak tells our listeners a lot about us. We don’t need to sound like Wikipedia, but if we sound as if we are uneducated others tend to judge us accordingly.

I find it annoying when a person has purposely taken up the habit of using bad grammar. This usually affects how the person  is perceived  by others, and makes a negative impression.  I see  little advantage to this, unless the poor speaker is desperate to be “one of the boys” (or girls). Perhaps I’m misjudging the reason for that kind of speech, but in some cases I have seen and heard, this seems to fit.

The kind of language I’m talking about is not so much the sentences with the *F* word thrown in  before every noun and verb in the sentence, but rather something more common — using the wrong tense of see, come, say, go, and several other verbs.

Also notice the insecure use of “this” instead of “a” or “the,” with the sentences going higher in pitch at the end so they sound like a question.

Here is an example of a conversation with the errors marked in red:

Me and my buddy seen this ad in the paper? We rented an upstairs room in this boarding house? The first day I gets up early because I hears this noise downstairs? I come down the stairs in a hurry and I seen this guy? He’s leaving the house with this black bag in his hand?

I would’ve went after him, but I never seen which way he went. So I says to my buddy, “Hey buddy! I just seen this burglar take off with this black bag.”

“Oh, that’s just the guy that’s renting the downstairs room. Probably going to school. I think he’s in college.”

“Hmpf! Good thing we got our jobs. We don’t need no grammar lessons. I could’ve went  to college  but I seen the Help Wanted sign. Don’t need no grammar.”

“But your job is to be a reporter. You need good English for that.”

“Naaahhh! I’ll just get Anneli to copy-edit my work for me.”

*****

Have you heard people speaking like this? Why do you think they do it, when they know it’s not good English?

Three Sets of Troublesome Words

 

Probably everyone who ever wrote anything has some words they find troublesome. Here are a few that many people struggle with.

1.  passed or past

Passed is used when you mean the past tense of the verb to pass (go by, or beyond something).

Past refers to a time that has gone by.

Examples:

I passed a car that was traveling too slowly on the highway.

My great-grandmother passed away when I was a baby (in the past).

She passed (handed out) the exams papers to the students. We all hoped we had passed the exam (passed  beyond the required grade).

Neither of us wanted to talk about our past (time gone by).

It was already past the hour (the time) when we usually went to sleep. We hadn’t realized how quickly the time had passed (gone by).

It does get tricky. You can be in a car that has passed a bicycle. That means you have gone past the bicycle. Yikes!!! Hang in there. It does make sense. Your car did the action of passing the bicycle and you went past the bicycle (to a point beyond it).

That was a tricky one. The next ones should be easier.

2. advice or advise, and

3. affect or effect

Advice is the noun and advise is the verb. I will also add the use of affect (a verb) and effect (usually a noun, but can be used as a verb).

Examples:

Long ago when the Captain and I were in a pub and a couple at the next table invited us to play shuffleboard with them, I said I had never played it before. The man came over to me, draped his arm over my shoulder and placed his hand on the back of my hand as I held one of the “pucks,” meaning to guide my hand as I slid the puck.

“Let me give you some advice (noun),” he said.

At this point the captain came over and said to the man, “I advise (verb) you to take your hands off her.”

This had the desired effect (noun) and the man moved away. How did this affect (verb) the rest of the game? Not at all. If you want to effect (here it is a verb) change, sometimes you have to speak up to get the effect (noun) you want. It need not affect (verb) the mood in the room at all.

Whew! That was hard work. I think I need to go LIE (not LAY) down.

 

 

 

 

Clauses other than Santa

An independent clause is a group of words with a noun or pronoun as a subject and a verb as a predicate. We have been calling it a sentence. When two clauses are put together and linked, they become a compound sentence (basically, two sentences in one).

Eg.

The bell rang to end the last session.

We left the school.

The bell rang to end the last session, and we left the school.

Each clause could stand independently.

We also have subordinate clauses. They do not stand independently. They still have a subject and a predicate, but because they start with words such as when,  which, that, and as, they are dependent (or subordinate) to another clause.

Here are examples of subordinate clauses and independent clauses. You’ll see that the blue ones could stand alone.

As we climbed higher up the mountain, the weather became worse.

When my dog sees a cat, she wants to chase it.

She called for help which was the sensible thing to do.

We also have clauses which act as other parts of speech. Some groups of words act as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs.

Here are some examples where noun clauses act as:

a subject: That I am old is easy to see.

a direct object: Emma knows which bowl is hers.

a predicate noun: The answer is whatever you want it to be.

Adjectival clauses:

That is the dish that ran off with the spoon.

Adverbial clauses:

The show ended when the rain began to pour onto the stage.

I suppose you could call these other little clauses Santa’s Helpers. He’s the big Claus and these are all the little clauses.