Writing Tip Writing Tip: Oops, It's Wrong... Or Is It?
Entry posted by Trebs in Writing Tips
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Cia has done it again and written what I think is a fantastic writing tip. Check it out and see if you agree...
Oops, it's wrong... or is it?
So many times I get confused by the complexities of English grammar, I'm sure many of you are the same. The rules are often contradictory, and the exceptions to exceptions are absolutely a quagmire of missteps and misspells waiting to trap you. I recently read an article that said to polish your writing skills, spend thirty minutes a month reviewing your grammar skills as well. After all, our stories are only as good as the way we present them. A great plot can only go so far. To help with that polish, here are a couple of the most common trip ups in word choices for you to review.
Its and It's.
Okay, so we're all taught that if Sally owns the red scarf, it is Sally's scarf. Notice the apostrophe s that indicates possession. That's the rule EXCEPT if the scarf belonged to an it. In that case it would be its scarf, no apostrophe. See, the only time it gets an apostrophe s is when you make it is into a conjunction or it's. An it doesn't get to show possession of anything with an apostrophe, poor thing!
Lay and Lie
This one is TRICKY! So, they are both verbs. BUT lay is an intransitive verb, it needs a subject and an object to work. I lay the food on the table. Past tense of lay is laid. I laid the food on the table for dinner. See, the food is the direct subject (who the action is happening to) and the object (where the verb is acting on) is the table. The verb, of course... is lay/laid.
Then you have lie. Lie is a verb that requires no object, because no one is doing anything to the subject, in this case. In the following example, no one is doing anything to the cat, but lie/lay tells you what the cat is doing, depending on your tense. The cats lie on the bed. In this case, the word lie is telling us what the cats are doing on the bed. Past tense would be, The cats lay on the bed. Since the action is being taken by the subject, not done to the subject, the verb is transitive and you use lie/lay.
Okay, how do you tell them apart? Usually if you read your sentence where 'I, he,she,it' is doing something to something else, you'd use the intransitive verb: lay/laid. If you read it aloud, you can also often tell if that is the verb form to use because the sentence is incomplete with an object: 'I lay the food' doesn't make much sense does it? I lay the food where?
Since and Because
I learned this rule because I made this mistake. The difference is that since speaks of a time frame and because is cause/effect. Look at my first sentence. I used because. If you say the sentence it wouldn't sound off to use either word, but because is appropriate as I'm telling you that making the mistake caused me to learn the rule. If I wanted to indicate a time frame about learning the rule, I would use since. I have not made this mistake since I learned this rule.
Who's and Whose
So who's is a contraction of who is. Whose is a word that shows possession. This one is simple to differentiate if you replace the word with who is. Who's going to ride in whose car? Try replace both of those with who is, you can clearly tell who is (who's) does not replace whose.
Nauseated and Nauseous
This is one I had no idea of until I read it! I'm sure I've broken this rule quite often, actually. The rule is that something can be nauseous, but if you feel sick you are nauseated. Huh . . . new things learned every day!
Now - do YOU have a writing tip that you think others could find useful? Let me know!
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