EnglishForEnglishSpeakers.com
This site is intended to help with English mistakes commonly made even by native English speakers.
More clarifications will be added occasionally.
Feel free to contact us by email at contact@englishforenglishspeakers.com
You and I
- Myth:
- Saying "you and me" is always wrong. Use "you and I".
- Example
- "Johnny and me went to the store." Wrong!
"Johnny and I went to the store." Right!
- Correct Rule:
- Subjective case requires "you and I".
Objective case requires "you and me"
- Example:
- "Johnny sent you and I an email." Wrong!
"Johnny sent you and me an email." Right!
- How to know:
- Does "Johnny sent I an email" sound right?
Subjunctive Mood
- Wrong:
- "If I was rich...." (This actually means "if it was in fact true in the past...".)
- Right:
- "If I were rich...." (This is subjunctive mood, and means "in the hypothetical situation...".)
- Wrong:
- "To reach the top of the white board, it is important that you are tall enough." (This means it is in fact true that you are tall enough, and that's important.)
- Right:
- "To reach the top of the white board, it is important that you be tall enough." (This is subjunctive mood, and it means you might be tall enough - dependong on who you are.)
Plural vs Possessive
- Plural
- No apostrophe. For example, "Provider's Enter Here" should be "Providers Enter Here".
- Possessive
- With apostrophe. For example, "The car's headlights...."
It's vs its
- it's
- Contraction: "it is" or "it has"
- its
- Possessive: "The dog lost its mind when..."
Have RAN
To say "have ran" is wrong. There is no such tense of the verb "run". It appears to be a mixing of simple past tense and present perfect tense.
| Past | Present Perfect |
|---|
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural |
| I ran | We ran | I have run | We have run |
| You ran | You ran | You have run | You have run |
| He/She/it ran | They ran | He/She/it has run | They have run |
Examples:
Past Tense: I ran in the park yesterday.
Present Perfect: I have run every day for the past week.
To, Too, and Two
- To
- Preposition: I am going to the store.
- Too
- Adverb: I am getting too far behind.
- Two
- the number: I will buy two drinks.
Loose vs Lose
Loose rhymes with goose.
- Loose
- I lost some weight and now my pants are loose.
- Lose
- I am going to lose more weight.
Active vs Passive Voice
Active voice is when the subject of the sentence is performing the action. Passive voice is when the subject of the sentence is being acted upon.
- Passive
- I was hit by a car..
- Active
- A car hit me.