I'm a woman on a mission! I see so much bad grammar all around on signs, on menus, on the web and even in the the broadsheet press it's no wonder people have difficulty discerning right from wrong. The misuse of the apostrophe is a major bugbear of mine!
Some would argue that it is the conveyance of meaning that is important. I disagree. In speech you can get away with grammar mistakes but when you come to write you should be able to do it correctly.
Were people never taught grammar? I am of an age when we had to parse sentence at primary school. That involved identifying principal clauses, subordinate clauses not to mention parts of speech like verbs and nouns and functions like subject and object. I won't be going in to all that, unless anyone requests it!
I aim to examine some common mistakes eg their/they're/there and give some quite simple rules of thumb as to how to get them right.
This is aimed at native speakers of UK English.
Please take all postings in the spirit they are offered, that is, freely and sincerely.
Constructive feedback is welcome.
