One of my pet peeves is spelling mistakes. With the ubiquitous computer spellcheck and even a good old-fashioned dictionary, today there really can be no excuse. However expert you are in your specialist field, basic spelling mistakes will inevitably cast doubt on your professionalism and harm your credibility. A big cause of spelling slip-ups is the misuse of common words.
Here are some we made earlier. . .
1) They’re, Their, There
One’s a contraction for “they are” (they’re), one refers to something owned by a group (their), and one refers to a place (there). If you stop to think about it you probably know the difference between the three but under pressure it’s easy to slip up. Take this example:
“They’re going to love their presents when they get there.”
2) Your and You’re
With these, it’s the difference between owning something and actually being something:
Your cake is delicious – you’re a great cook!
See the difference? “Your” is possessive and “you’re” is a contraction of “you are”.
3) Phase and Faze
I’ve seen even professional writers get these two words mixed up. ‘Phase’ refers to a stage (for instance in a product’s lifecycle or child’s development) whereas ‘faze’ means someone is daunted or discouraged by something they face.
4) Me versus I
In my experience most people get this one wrong and will often craft sentences such as:
“When you’ve written that monthly report, can you send it to Mike and I?”
But try taking Mike out of that sentence and you’ll see how wrong that is. You would never ask someone to send something to “I” when he or she is done! The reason it sounds odd is because “I” is the object of that sentence — and “I” should not be used in objects. In that situation, you’d use “me.” Like this example:
“When you’ve written that monthly report, can you send it to Mike and me?”
Much better, don’t you agree?
5) Lynch and Linchpin
These two words may sound exactly the same but it would be difficult to find more different meanings! One means to hang or string up – basically murder someone – while the other is a complimentary description of a key player in a team. It continually surprises me how often the two are misused and misspelt.
6) Its and It’s
I’ve covered this one before as errors are so commonplace. “Its” is possessive and “it’s” is a contraction of “it is.” Lots of people get tripped up because “it’s” has an ‘s after it, which normally means something is possessive, but it’s actually a contraction.
7) Affect and Effect
The easiest way I’ve found to explain the difference between these two words is that ‘effect’ when used as a noun generally means ‘result’ or ‘consequent’ whereas ‘affect’ refers to the impact of an action on something or someone. For instance, “Many people were really affected by the hard-hitting programme, which had the effect of dramatically increasing charity donations.”
And, believe me, there are plenty more where these came from. I’ll be back next week with more in the same vein. But if you need help in the meantime to produce precisely targeted, grammatically correct, well written copy for your business, just give me a call on 01923 212048.
With grateful acknowledgement of Hub Spot’s contributions to this post
