Common Grammatical Errors in English

Pronoun Disagreement

For example:

• Incorrect: “Every girl must bring their own lunch.”
• Correct: “Every girl must bring her own lunch.”

Mistakes in Apostrophe Usage

For example:

• Incorrect: “My mothers cabin is next to his’ cabin.”
• Correct: “My mother’s cabin is next to his cabin.”

Lack of Subject-Verb Agreement

For example:

• Incorrect: “These recipes is good for beginning chefs.”
• Correct: “These recipes are good for beginning chefs.”

Misplaced Modifiers

For example:

• Incorrect: “At eight years old, my father gave me a pony for Christmas.”
• Correct: “When I was eight years old, my father gave me a pony for Christmas.”

Sentence Fragments

For example:

• Incorrect: “Sharon stayed home from school the other day. Because she was sick.”
• Correct: “Sharon stayed home from school the other day because she was sick.”

Missing Comma in a Compound Sentence

For example:

• Incorrect: “Jim went to the store and Ella went with him.”
• Correct: “Jim went to the store, and Ella went with him.”

No Clear Antecedent

For example:

• Incorrect: “The dad found the boy, and he was happy.”
• Correct: “The dad was happy when he found the boy.”

Ending a Sentence in a Preposition

For example:

• Incorrect: “What reason did he come here for?”
• Correct: “For what reason did he come here?”

Mixing Up Spellings

For example:

• Incorrect: “There father went to school there.”
• Correct: “Their father went to school there.”

Mixing Up Similar Words

For example:

• Incorrect: “The rain had a good affect on the farmer’s field.”
• Correct: “The rain had a good effect on the farmer’s field.”

Unnecessary Commas

For example:

• Incorrect: “She had a stomach ache, because she ate too much ice cream.”
• Correct: “She had a stomach ache because she ate too much ice cream.”

Mixing Up Possessives and Plurals

For example:

• Incorrect: “The dogs dish was full of bone’s.”
• Correct: “The dog’s dish was full of bones.”

Mistakes With Well and Good

For example:

• Incorrect: “I am doing good in math.”
• Correct: “I am doing well in math.”

Comparisons That Are Incomplete

For example:

• Incorrect: “My hair is smoother and softer.”
• Correct: “My hair is smoother and softer than it was a month ago.”

Mixing Up Adverbs and Adjectives

For example:

• Incorrect: “Susan gave me a real nice bouquet of flowers.”
• Correct: “Susan gave me a really nice bouquet of flowers.”