Grammar 101

Grammar 101

Misused Words

Many of you already know what homonyms are but for those that don’t allow me to enlighten you. Homonyms are words that are pronounced the same but are spelled differently and mean different things. This can cause problems for anyone new to the English language as well as those who failed to pay close attention in English class. Over the course of the past several weeks, I have noticed that more of the pieces I read and review tend to be riddled with one particular homonym that is misused. In this article, I will cover that homonym as well as one other that is commonly misused.

There, Their, or They're

These tend to be the most commonly misused words. Let’s take a closer look at these three words. For this particular article, we will use only one of the definitions for each word with examples to follow.

There- adverb- in or at that place.
Example: We went there for dinner.

Their-pronoun- nominative plural of he, she, and it.
Example: Their house burned down last night.

They're-contraction of they are
Example: They're going to Branson for the weekend.



Many of the pieces I’ve read will have there in place of their or vice versa as well as they're confused with their. The examples above should help you better understand the different meanings in the two words. If you are ever unsure which one to use look in a dictionary for help or go to dictionary.com to look up their definitions.



Its or It’s

Another common mistake, that I am guilty of at times concerns the word its/it’s. How do you know which to use? Shouldn’t it always be it’s? No, it shouldn’t. Unfortunately, we have gotten in the habit of adding an apostrophe where it isn’t needed. Below are examples with the word its/it’s in them.

Example 1:
Its not my fault your balloon popped.

Example 2:
It’s tongue was sticking out.


Yes, these are pitiful examples, but I hope you all noticed that I used the wrong form of its/it’s. An easy way to tell is to ask yourself the following question:
Will the sentence still make sense if I use the words it is/ it has instead of its/it’s?
Let’s answer that question using the examples above.

Example 1:
Its not my fault your balloon popped.
It has not my fault your balloon popped.

No, that doesn’t fit. Let’s try it is instead.
It is not my fault your balloon popped.

That seems to work well doesn’t it? This tells us that we should use it’s rather than its. Now, let’s see about the next sentence.

Example 2:
It’s tongue was sticking out.
It has tongue was sticking out.

I shouldn’t even have to tell you that doesn’t work. Let’s try it is again.
It is tongue was sticking out.

Houston, we have a problem. It is does not work in this case either. Therefore we know to use its. You see, it’s is a contraction used to replace it has or it is.

That is a simple way of seeing whether you are using the correct form. As you can see, it would be very easy to overlook such a mistake when editing too. Your grammar check won't always pick up on such an error either so it is important that you do not rely solely on it for your editing.

While there are many more things I could cover, I will end this article now with a few words of wisdom. No matter how good of a writer you are, no matter how many books or pieces you have had published, keep in mind that there is always room for improvement.

Happy writing to you all!




The definitions used in this article were taken from dictionary.com.