How To Write Better & Boost Your Brand? Avoid These Grammar Mistakes!

#1 Misues of Possessives & Plurals

Possessives show ownership. Nouns (people, places, or things) require an “’s” (apostrophe s — for singular nouns) or “s’” (s apostrophe — for plural nouns) to be made a possessive.

Plurals indicate a quantity of more than one. Generally speaking, plural nouns that aren’t possessive should not have an apostrophe! (OK, there are a few outliers and sometimes it depends on the style guide you’re following.)

Example 1:

• Singluar: No one’s submitted an FAQ yet.
• Plural: See our FAQs (or FAQ) page.
• Singular Possessive: This FAQ’s answer is outdated.
• Plural Possessive: These FAQs’ answers have been updated.

Example 2:

• Singluar: This email rocks.
• Plural: SBSF sends the most insightful emails ever.
• Singular Possessive: My email’s layout helps make it easier to read.
• Plural Possessive: His emails’ click-through rate averages in the double digits!

Notable (possible exceptions): Pluralizing (some) letters and (some) contractions may use an apostrophe s. (e.g., A’s, Do’s or Dos, Don’ts) Check your style guide to figure out how you should do it for your content.

#2 Homophone Mix-Ups

Homophones are words that sound the same(ish) but are spelled differently and have different meanings. A lot of the ones I see misused are mix-ups between possessive pronouns and contractions involving pronouns.

There are tons of homophones in English…and I can think of a few off the top of my head in French, too. So they must exist in every language?

Example 1: It’s vs Its (It’s an honor to be in its presence.)

• Its = Possessive pronoun, indicates something owns or possesses something else (e.g., Its hair is red.”
• It’s = Contraction for “It is”

Example 2: Your vs You’re (You’re in your happy place.)

• Your = Possessive pronoun, indicates you own or possess something else (e.g., Your name is melodic.”
• You’re = Contraction for “You are”

Example 3: Their vs They’re vs There (They’re pleased to be there with their family.)

• Their = Possessive pronoun, indicates a group owns or possesses something else (e.g., Their clothes are fancy.”
• They’re = Contraction for “They are”
• There = Adverb, indicates placement, position, or location (e.g., The books are over there.)

Example 4: To vs Too (Too many raccoons began to converge on the feeder.)

• To = A preposition indicating directional movement (e.g., ride to the store) or part of an infinitive verb (e.g., to wallow)
• Too = An adverb meaning “also” or “excessively” (Though he had too little time, he went, too.)

#3 Me vs I Incorrectly Implemented

This is a twofer: pronoun choice and placement. When talking about yourself and someone else, you should refer to yourself with the proper pronoun and put that pronoun after the other person/people. Putting the reference to yourself after the other person is considered more polite and correct.

Example 1:

• Wrong Pronoun, Wrong Order: Me and Kelly are going dancing.
• Wrong Pronoun, Correct Order: Kelly and me are going dancing.
• Wrong Order, Correct Pronoun: I and Kelly are going dancing.
• Correct Order, Correct Pronoun: Kelly and I are going dancing

Example 2:

• Wrong Pronoun, Wrong Order: It’s for I and Lance to decide.
• Wrong Pronoun, Correct Order: It’s for Lance and I to decide.
• Wrong Order, Correct Pronoun: It’s for me and Lance to decide.
• Correct Order, Correct Pronoun: It’s for Lance and me to decide.

Example 3:

• Wrong Pronoun, Wrong Order: They gave it to I and Zain.
• Wrong Pronoun, Correct Order: They gave it to Zain and I.
• Wrong Order, Correct Pronoun: They gave it to me and Zain.
• Correct Order, Correct Pronoun: They gave it to Zain and me.

I think the easiest way to remember which pronoun to use and when is to restate the sentence without including the other person/people. For instance:

You Wouldn’t Say This	You Would Say This
Me am going dancing.	I am going dancing.
It’s for I to decide.	It’s for me to decide.
They gave it to I.	They gave it to me.

#4 Subject/Verb Discord

Basically, the person or object in your sentences needs to match the action it’s paired with. We are talking conjugation. We are talking number agreement. To a lesser degree, you can throw using the proper tense in here, too.

Mostly, what I see is the verb not using the right form for the given subject. More often than not, this seems to happen with more complex sentences — like compound sentences with multiple clauses.

Example: Multiple or plural subjects with a verb conjugated for a single subject

• Wrong: Duke and Tila has a checkers set at their home.
• Correct: Duke and Tila have a checkers set at their home.

#5 Modifier Mayhem

A modifier is a word or phrase that describes or qualifies something else. Adjectives and adverbs are modifiers.

The biggest sin here is poor placement of modifiers in sentences such that they create confusion. Where the modifiers are placed, or the entire sentence structure, lacks clarity — the read can’t definitively tell what the modifier is linked to.

Example 1:

• Wrong: My dog befriended another neighborhood kid named Dahlia.
• Correct: My dog befriended another neighborhood kid and her name’s Dahlia.

With the first sentence, it’s hard to tell if the dog has befriended more than one neighborhood child name Dahlia. The second sentence better articulates the intended sentiment.

Example 2:

• Wrong: Despite stagnating for years, Sondra tries fresh approaches to boost sales.
• Correct: Sondra tries fresh approaches to boost sales despite them stagnating for years.

In the first sentence, you can’t quite tell if it’s Sondra or the sales that are stagnating. In the second sentence, the modifier is closer to the thing it relates to, which helps the reader know what’s meant.

#6 They vs It Misfit

A business (or brand or other inanimate entity) is both singular and not a human. Therefore, you shouldn’t use the pronouns “they/them/their” The correct pronoun is “it/its.”

Obviously, if you’re referring to more than one business, you’d use “they.” But just because this is how pluralization of “it” works!

And, of course, you have to make sure the pronoun and its verb agree….

Example 1: I went to the store but the store is out of milk. (Single business)

• Wrong: I went to the store but they’re out of milk.
• Correct: I went to the store but it’s out of milk.

Example 2: Zips clothing is overpriced. (Single business)

• Wrong: Their clothing is overpriced.
• Correct: Its clothing is overpriced.

Example 3: Pandora’s Pizzas in the downtown area are open late. (Multiple businesses)

• Wrong: It’s open late.
• Correct: They’re are open late.

#7 Adjective vs Adverb Fails

Adjectives are used to modify nouns, pronouns, or sense verbs (e.g., feel, seem, look, appear, smell, taste, sound). Adverbs are used to describe verbs adjectives or other adverbs. They’re not the same and they’re not interchangeable.

Pro Tip: Most adverbs end in -ly.

Example 1: Dark vs Darkly

• Wrong: The room is darkly.
• Correct: The room is dark.
• Wrong: The room is dark lit.
• Correct: The room is darkly lit.

Example 2: Real vs Really

• Wrong: The gift is real nice.
• Correct: The gift is really nice.
• Wrong: That’s a really gemstone.
• Correct: That’s a real gemstone.

Example 3: Good (Adjective) vs Well (Adverb)

• Wrong: I did good on my exam.
• Correct: I did well on my exam.
• Wrong: She makes well cookies.
• Correct: She makes good cookies.
• Wrong: That outfit looks well on you.
• Correct: That outfit looks good on you.

#8 Who vs That Confusion

Use “who” with a person/people and “that” other stuff. You can also use “that” when referring to a bunch of people when you’re emphasizing the group, rather than its individual members.

Example 1: Who

• Wrong: This is the belt who I wore.
• Correct: This is the dentist who helped me.
• Correct: Yann is who I trust.
• Correct: She knows Jack, who’s on his way up now.

Example 2: That

• Wrong: Val is the one that sews toys for pets.
• Wrong: The boat who Jim got is motorized.
• Correct: The boat that Jim got is motorized.
• Correct: The youth group that I belonged to met at the rec center.

#9 Then vs Than Switching

Then is a marker of time sequence — after X comes Y. Than is a conjunction or preposition used to relate something to another thing in comparisons.

Example 1: Then

• Wrong: We’ll have brunch than go for a walk.
• Correct: We’ll have brunch then go for a walk.
• Wrong: I was younger than.
• Correct: I was younger then.

Example 2: Than

• Wrong: Dorie is taller then me.
• Correct: Dorie is taller than me.
• Wrong: Lazybones — you always sit rather then do!
• Correct: Lazybones — you always sit rather than do!

#10 Crimes Against Proper Punctuation

This is a big, encompassing buck of miscellany. Suffice it to say, everything from periods and commas to quotation marks and semicolons to em dashes and apostrophes to exclamation point and ellipses are misused.

A lot. In so many ways I couldn’t even begin to catalog them. And often more than one crime is committed at a time — yikes!

I think the main categories of punctuation pitfalls are:

• Incorrect usage — There’s punctuation; it’s just wrong. Like putting a period where there should be a question mark.
• Omissions — Text that should have punctuation doesn’t. This could be anything from abbreviations without periods (e.g., Mr Knoff instead of Mr. Knoff) to sentences lacking anything at their end (e.g., an exclamation point).
• Extras — This would be when additional (and totally superfluous) punctuation is slipped in. I’m thinking about random commas sprinkled about in sentences or double periods because no one proofread.
• Inconsistency — Punctuating one way here and another way there. Punctuation is all over the map, not necessarily applied incorrectly but definitely creating style havoc and perhaps an uneven reader experience.
• Overload — Sometimes you lay your eyes on writing that’s got punctuation everywhere! It looks weird and can be distracting (even when it isn’t technically wrong).