Grammar
Common grammar mistakes
These are the ones where both spellings are real words, correctly spelled, so nothing gets underlined and the mistake ships. Spellcheck cannot help you here—the only fix is knowing which is which, and every entry below has a test that settles it in about two seconds.
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less vs. fewer omgstop.org/less
One is for things you count. The other is for things you measure. You picked wrong.
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they’re / their / there omgstop.org/theyre
Three words. Three jobs. You are picking one at random.
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apostrophes omgstop.org/apostrophe
They mark possession or missing letters. They have never once made anything plural.
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your / you’re omgstop.org/your
Two words. One is ownership, one is a contraction. You are mixing them.
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its / it’s omgstop.org/its
The apostrophe means “it is.” It has never meant “belonging to it.”
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affect / effect omgstop.org/affect
One is what you do. One is what happens. You have a 50% success rate.
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then / than omgstop.org/than
One is time. One is comparison. They are not interchangeable.
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lose / loose omgstop.org/lose
One extra O turns a verb into an adjective.
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who’s / whose omgstop.org/whose
Same trick as its/it’s, and the same 50% failure rate.
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to / too / two omgstop.org/too
Three words, one sound, and you are picking by vibe.
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me / I / myself omgstop.org/myself
“Myself” is not a fancier “me.” It is not a politeness upgrade.
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could of / would of / should of omgstop.org/could-of
It has always been “have.” You are transcribing a contraction you misheard.
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everyday / every day omgstop.org/everyday
One is an adjective. One is how often. The space is doing real work.
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farther / further omgstop.org/farther
One is distance you could measure. One is everything else.
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who / whom omgstop.org/whom
There is a test. It takes two seconds and you have never once used it.
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lay / lie omgstop.org/lay
One takes an object. One doesn’t. Then the past tenses make it worse.
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literally omgstop.org/literally
It means actually, in fact, not as a metaphor. You mean the opposite.
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irregardless omgstop.org/irregardless
The word is regardless. The extra syllable is doing damage, not work.
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compliment / complement omgstop.org/complement
One is a nice thing you say. One is a thing that completes another.
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principal / principle omgstop.org/principal
One is a person or the main thing. One is a rule.
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discreet / discrete omgstop.org/discreet
One means subtle. One means separate. The vowels swap.