You can easily come off as an intelligent person while talking, but as soon as you have to type the English language, you can come to an unfortunate problem: English grammar can be hard to learn. It’s necessary to learn, and with some practice, you can master the English arts.

The most common of all grammar mistakes in the English language is, without a doubt, the different between “your” and “you are.” When spelled out, it doesn’t seem like it’s hard to distinguish the two. But when you use the contraction “you’re” there can be some confusion. Any time you read “you’re” imagine you are reading “you are” instead to see if it fits. “Your” shows possession, while “you’re” doesn’t.

Probably the second most common mistake in grammar is “there” being confused with “their.” The word “their” shows possession, while “there” is indicating a location. If your neighbors own a pool, you would say “The neighbors often swim in their pool,” and use there as “Sometimes I swim over there.”

This one is a bit more tricky to use: “effect” and “affect.” The word “affect” is used as a verb in just about every situation, while “effect” is a noun. A good example of “affect” would be “The clouds affect the amount of sunlight the ground receives,” while a good example of “effect” would be “Since the rain was gone, there was no effect on driving conditions.” Just remember that “affect” does the action in this case.

When those who are foreign to the English language start to make their efforts in learning it, the biggest stumbling block is when to use “a” and when to use “an.” The word “an” is used before a word that sounds like a vowel- which seems easy enough to see at first. The problem is that some words such as “hour” don’t appear to require the word “an” until it is pronounced. It takes a lot of practice, but practice does make perfect.

Last but not least, we have the debate of using “good” and using “well.” Good is an adjective, but is incorrectly used as an adverb much of the time when saying something like “I am feeling good.” This is incorrect, and should instead be “I am feeling well.” Note that the word “well” can also be an adjective in some cases.

Final Thoughts

Practice English grammar all you can, and your efforts will pay off. It will take a fair amount of time to get all of it down. But once you do, you will appear intelligent and will be able to converse with others without having to sacrifice your self image in the process.

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