Does your school goer make these grammar mistakes?
The majority of grammar errors are small yet they have a significant influence. From incorrect use of adverbs to subject-verb disagreement to incomplete comparisons in sentences, there are a few grammar mistakes that often get overlooked. Here are 5 common grammar mistakes and how you can help your kid avoid them:
There vs. Their vs. They’re
'They’re' is the shortened form of they are. Their refers to ownership by an individual/ group of people. There implies reference to a specific place. Encourage your child to take help of a grammar checker and/or spell check tool to rule it out. Better still, help your school goer kid with the proofreading bit to avoid being entirely dependent on the online grammar checker or spell checker tools.
It’s vs. Its
The first one refers to possession of an object/place with an individual while the latter is a contraction of it is. You can help your child identify this error by doing a control + Find search using the Ctrl+F with them and help them reduce this error in their copies. Either read your kid's assignment yourself or get someone else to do it before hitting the send button right away. It's easy to miss typos like ''it's vs. its'' and other errors if you stare at the same piece of work for hours. Get a double eye check done by someone else who is conversant with grammar.
Who vs. Whom
Who is used as an action of a verb and hence becomes a subject. For example, who sent you this card? On the other hand, whom receives the action and thus becomes the object. For example, to whom we should address this query? It’s a bit confusing though can be overcome with practice. What can be helpful here for your kid is encouraging them to proofread backwards. You may begin by reading the last sentence of the paragraph first and ask your child to read the one before it once you have finished reading yours. In this manner, you can help your school goer prepare an effective copy.
Incomplete Comparisons
Often, one tends to write sentences like ‘He is stronger’ or similar such sentences. However, it’s an incomplete comparison as stronger, faster or better than whom is not clarified. As a thumb rule, ask your kid to specify what that something else is so that there's no confusion when they read it out in class later.
Overuse of adverbs
Words that modify verbs and often end in ‘ly’ are called adverbs. Using adverbs is fine, but overuse of adverbs can take away the essence of the sentence. For instance, the boy sprinted to catch the runaway ball sounds better than the boy ran really fast to catch the runaway ball. Thus, you may proofread the copy a little while later from when the kid wrote it.
Keeping these pointers handy will help you in guiding your kid with avoiding these common grammar mistakes. It will also be helpful as you teach them how to make their writing more effective and meaningful for their target readers.