{"id":14099,"date":"2020-02-06T15:01:45","date_gmt":"2020-02-06T15:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/?page_id=14099"},"modified":"2020-02-07T14:22:25","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T14:22:25","slug":"spot-the-grammar-and-spelling-fails-corrected","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/spot-the-grammar-and-spelling-fails-corrected\/","title":{"rendered":"SPOT THE GRAMMAR AND SPELLING FAILS – CORRECTED"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many people easily spot six or seven of the issues. But a few are not so obvious. \"\"Here are the amended versions.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The evening is a chance to chat with like-minded people and local business’s<\/span> businesses<\/span> with no hard sell.<\/p>\n

Plurals don\u2019t need apostrophes. Also, plurals of words ending in \u2018s\u2019 usually have \u2018es\u2019 at the end, like kisses and buses.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

We are the south wests<\/span> South West\u2019s<\/span> premier tree-felling company.<\/p>\n

Where do we start here? First, the South-West is a name for a geographical region and therefore it’s a ‘proper noun’, like the name of a town or a person, and proper nouns have capital letters. By the way, compass point words that are used just to indicate direction \u2013 “I\u2019m heading north” \u2013 don\u2019t have capitals. Second, this is a possessive word \u2013 it’s the premier tree felling company of the South West \u2013 and so we need an apostrophe.\u00a0 Also, you can use a hyphen in South-West, but you don\u2019t need one. Style guides differ on this so you can create your own convention.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Hi, I hope your<\/span> you\u2019re<\/span> well.<\/p>\n

\u2018Your\u2019 is a possessive pronoun as in \u201cI think this is your hat.\u201d. \u2018You\u2019re\u2019 is short for \u2018you are\u2019 and has an apostrophe in place of the missing \u2018a\u2019.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Our Beaujolais provides a great compliment<\/span> complement<\/span> to the vegetarian chilli.<\/p>\n

A \u2018compliment\u2019 is an expression of praise, as in \u201cThat was a great article you wrote.\u201d. A \u2018complement\u2019 is something that matches or goes well with something else.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Their<\/span> There<\/span> are over 50,000 employees in our firm.\u00a0 There<\/span> Their<\/span> jobs cover a wide range from developers to marketing experts.<\/p>\n

\u2018Their\u2019 is a pronoun, the possessive form of \u2018they\u2019. \u2018There\u2019 is a pronoun used to introduce the subject of a sentence, as here, or an adverb used to denote location as in \u201cShe\u2019s over there.\u201d.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

He runs a business which<\/span> that<\/span> provides apps for mobile phones and tablets.<\/p>\n

Trickier for many people, this one. Not everyone gets taught about this at school and so many people use \u2018that\u2019 and \u2018which\u2019 interchangeably. However, there is a convention whereby \u2018that\u2019 is used for essential information and \u2018which\u2019 is for extra, non-essential, information as in \u201cThis is the house that Jack built, which is red.\u201d. In other words, if you could leave out the \u2018that\u2019 or \u2018which\u2019 phrase and the sentence would still communicate the essential information, then it\u2019s a \u2018which\u2019. If not, it\u2019s a \u2018that\u2019.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

If I say \u201cThe Indian restaurant that we went to last Friday is in Park Street\u201d the \u2018that\u2019 phrase defines, or identifies, the noun. The key thing about the restaurant is that it is the one we went to last Friday. However, if I say \u201cThe Indian restaurant, which we went to last Friday, is in Park Street\u201d the \u2018which\u2019 phrase simply describes the noun. The key thing about the restaurant is that it is in Park Street, and, by the way, I\u2019m adding that it\u2019s the one we went to on Friday.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Our aim is fault-free software and last year we had far less<\/span> fewer<\/span> bugs.<\/p>\n

Use \u2018less\u2019 when talking about one thing and \u2018fewer\u2019 when referring to more than one, as in \u201cI\u2019d like less fish and fewer chips.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Graduate trainees work in a range of different jobs, giving them a chance to practice<\/del> practise <\/span>their skills.<\/p>\n

\u2018Practise\u2019 is the verb. \u2018Practice\u2019 is the noun. The same principle applies to \u2018license\u2019 and \u2018licence\u2019 and to \u2018advise\u2019 and \u2018advice\u2019. I remember it by the fact that \u2018is\u2019 is a verb but \u2018ice\u2019 is a noun.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I am honoured to receive this award and I want to thank those who have most inspired me: my parents, Nelson Mandela,<\/span> and Lady Gaga.<\/p>\n

That added comma after Mandela is called the \u2018Oxford comma\u2019. Normally, you would write a list without a comma before the final ‘and’, as in: \u201cMy heroes include John Lennon, Marie Curie, Nelson Mandela and Lady Gaga.\u201d .However, if that could create confusion, as here, where the last two items might be thought to be related to the one before, then the convention is to add that Oxford comma before the \u2018and’.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

I feel great because I got my hair cut and died<\/span> dyed today.<\/p>\n

What a difference a letter makes!<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Does this stuff bore you rigid? Or do you love it? \u00a0If you love it, take a look at the BBC News style guide<\/a> which is not a bad set of guidelines for the areas where usage varies. <\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

PS Some may be wondering what governs the use of single \u2018 or double quote marks \u2013 or inverted commas \u2013 above. There are no set conventions on this. Newspapers and publishers vary in their usage. The main thing is to choose your own convention and be consistent. My own preference is to use double quote marks for actual quotations or reported speech. For example, In 1963 Martin Luther King said: “I have a dream.”.\u00a0 That leaves single quote marks for other uses, like quotes within other quotes or ‘highlighting’ to signal to the reader – as I just did there – that you’re calling particular attention to a word or phrase or using it in a new context.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many people easily spot six or seven of the issues. But a few […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14099"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14099\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}