Lately, I’m beginning to realize the more I write, the more skeptical I am about my writings. “About” doesn’t sound right, there. Shouldn’t I be using a “with” instead? “…the more skeptical I am with my writings?” Or “of” fits in there better. “...the more skeptical I am of my writings.”
Wait. Shouldn’t the full stop be placed after the closing inverted comma? Or not? And shouldn’t I have used sceptical with a ‘C’ instead?
Blimey me! I cannot write one sentence without second, third or fourth doubting myself!
I have always followed my instincts when it came to my grammar. I have gone with what feels right to my tongue should feel right to your ears. Even during the School English-I examinations, especially with the “Choose the correct word” questions, I would read aloud the sentences in my head and figure out which word fits right in there, which ever felt comfortable while speaking would be my answer. Call it sheer luck, I used to score pretty well then :). Likewise, a lot of stuff I knew as a student, now are long forgotten. Apparently it’s because the technologies have overwhelmed our brains, our memory powers? A few days ago, my mom actually blurted out that I was getting dumb when I couldn’t remember a recent incident. I can’t remember what that was now! Mom is right, what will I be when I’m her age? Oh good god! Save me! I feel sad. I really do.
And before I forget, yes technologies have really engulfed our brains. It has become this necessary devil we can’t thrive without. Our smart phone autocorrects our wrong spellings, even suggests us better words; working on a MS Word keeps track of our spellings and grammar, and well the google engine handles anything and everything else. Yes, it does save us many embarrassments, only leaves our brains idle, slothful. And boy slothfulness is speedy in adaptation. It has already become a habit before you know it (Look who is advising! :D)
So, here are a few, just a few common cases of grammar so we know better to write something without getting autocorrected for it hurts one’s pride to be corrected by some machine every now and then? :P And well, I could have not done this article and instead googled stuff as and when required. But again, I wanna remember some stuff on my own, for my own good and oh what better way than through writing.
1. First: The old and the mostly confused Effect and Affect.
I have always remembered “effect” as the consequence of/to something good, something positive, keeping in mind the only exception for “side effect”. And related “affect” to something bad. This comes handy most of the time but not always.
However the actual distinction is as below:
Affect is a verb, it is an action word that means to change or influence something. Effect is usually a noun, it is an outcome or consequence of something. Effect, when used as a verb, means to bring something about as a result. (https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/grammar)
The below memes should help you understand and remember better.
 |
This one looks even better :D
2. Et Al. vs. Etc.
Etc. is short for “et cetera,” which means “and the rest”, and refers to a list of things.
Et al. means "and the others" and refers to a list of people. It’s an abbreviation for either et alii, et aliae or et alia when referring to masculine, feminine or gender neutral groups respectively. But some argue Et al. also means "other from the same group" or "others forming some group" and doesn’t always necessarily refer to just people. But apart from its usage in referring to academic papers by more than two authors, I don't believe I have ever seen it used in any other way. (http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/33304/et-cetera-vs-et-al)
3. Its and it’s: Its is short for “it is” or “it has”. It’s is the other meaning.
4. Stuff or stuffs: stuffs is not the plural of stuff. Stuff is usually uncountable, so you do not use a plural. But stuffs when used as a verb is a valid word too. E.g.: He stuffs his food in his mouth like a manic.
Likewise hair/hairs, grain/grains, water/waters, star/stars? But wait! The stars in the night sky although uncountable, is still stars with an S! Oh boy, this is getting confusing.
5. Further, the numerous British and American English spelling differences for words which mean the same and are also pronounced the same. Dreamed/ dreamt, learned/ learnt, spelled/ spelt, license/ licence, sceptical/ skeptical, enquire/ inquire.
Don’t confuse yourself with build and built, send and sent!
6. Oxford comma: The Oxford (or serial) comma is the final comma in a list of things. It is used before “and” or “or” in a sentence. Whether or not you use the Oxford comma is generally up to you. However, omitting it can sometimes cause some strange misunderstandings.
Below is an apt example from (https://www.grammarly.com/blog/what-is-the-oxford-comma-and-why-do-people-care-so-much-about-it/):
I love my parents, Lady Gaga and Humpty Dumpty.
Without the Oxford comma, the sentence above could be interpreted as stating that you love your parents, and your parents are Lady Gaga and Humpty Dumpty.
The meme explains it even better:
7. Weren’t we taught at school ‘an’ should be followed by a vowel (a,e,i,o,u) and ‘a’ should be followed by a consonant? Unfortunately, this is not always true! When to use ‘an’ or ‘a’ depends on how the word is pronounced and not on how it is written.
8. Using two negatives in a sentence is wrong or at least alters the meaning of the sentence to otherwise. With the Yo! Nigga trend hitting high, I see people use stuff like “I ain’t taking no shit”, where they actually mean “they ain’t taking any shit”, but “ain’t” and “no” are two negative words, and pretty much like in math where (-) + (-) would make a (+), this sentence would ultimately mean “I am taking shit”. And I don’t suppose anyone would mean to say that? But again, YOLO right? Who cares?
P.s : All Meme Courtesy: Google image? (I need to learn better referencing!)
