Common English Usage Errors

English Errors

Common English Usage Errors

Here is a list showing the 5 most common English language usage errors, according to my observations. These include affect-effect, than-then, there-their-they're, your and you're, singular subjects, and the articles of speech.

The Most Common Errors
1. Affect vs. effect
2. Than vs. then
3. There vs. their vs. they're
4. Your vs. You're
5. Singular subjects perceived as plural - Agreement in number of subject and verb
6. The articles of speech - a, an and the.

Funny British Stuff

	Usage Error	Examples
1.	Affect vs. Effect	This is by far the #1 English usage error. I actually believe that these two words are used incorrectly MORE OFTEN than they are used correctly. As a verb - Affect means to HAVE AN INFLUENCE upon something. Affect is seldom used as a noun, except by Norman Mailer. As a verb - effect means to CAUSE. As a noun - an effect is the RESULT of some action.
	Effect Verb Incorrect	This page will not effect you.
	Affect Verb Correct	This page will not affect you.
	Affect Verb Incorrect	This page will affect change. (COULD be correct, but probably is not what is meant)
	Effect Verb Correct	This page will effect change. (directly cause, or bring about change)
	Noun Incorrect	This page will not have any affect. (not a noun.)
	Noun Correct	This page will not have any effect.

2.	Than vs. Then	"Than" refers to the COMPARISON of two items. "Then" refers to TIME. Many British speakers prefer to use the word "then", in instances when "than" would be correct.
	Incorrect Correct	Google is better then Yahoo. (common in British speakers) Google is better than Yahoo.
	Incorrect Correct	If Yahoo fails, than Google rules. If Yahoo fails, then Google rules.

3.	There vs. Their vs. They're (a triple homophone)	"There" refers to place. "Their" refers to possession. "They're" is a contraction of "they are".
	Incorrect Correct	Google will prevail over there competition. Google will prevail over their competition.
	Incorrect Correct	The SEO manual is over their. The SEO manual is over there.
	Incorrect Incorrect Correct	It;' hard to tell what their going to do. It's hard to tell what there going to do. It's hard to tell what they're going to do.

4.	Your vs. You're	ur is what texting typists use (modern perversion). "Your" refers to possession. "You're" is a contraction of "you are".
	Incorrect Correct	I am going over to ur house. I am going over to your house.
	Incorrect Correct	Your going over to my house. You're going over to my house.

5.	Singular Subjects	Often, a person may think that a subject noun is plural, because it refers to a group of individuals, but the word "group" itself is SINGULAR. Some examples are group, company, club, organization, BBC, FBI, CIA, Google, etc. All are singular.
	Incorrect Correct	Google are going to take over the world (British speaker) Google is going to take over the world (US speaker).
	Incorrect Correct	The people at Google is going to take over the world. The people at Google are going to take over the world.

6.	Articles of Speech	Nothing identifies Asian speakers faster than the non-usage of the articles of speech, because the articles of speech do NOT exist in Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc. It is extremely difficult to convey to a nonnative speaker the proper use of the English articles of speech - a, an and the. Many become so confused that they refuse to use them at all, amplifying the problem. These errors are seldom made by native speakers.
	Incorrect	I am going to store. WHAT are you going to store? (Put in storage?)
	Correct	I am going to the store. (a known or previously mentioned store)
	Correct	I am going to a store. (an unspecified store, or a store previously not visited or discussed)

	British English Observations The Brits seem to have trouble with the letter "R"
1. The British like to ADD an R to the END of words ending in A
	Word	American Pronunciation	British Pronunciation
	Asia	A-zhu	A-zhure
	Africa	Af-ri-ca	Af-ri-cur
	America	A-mer-i-ca	A-mer-i-cur
	Cuba	Cu-ba	Cu-ber
	idea	i-dee-a	i-dear
2. The British like to DROP the R at the END a word
	Word	American Pronunciation	British Pronunciation
	far	far	fah
	mother	mo-ther	mo-tha
	water	wah-ter	wah-tah
3. The British like to DROP the R in the MIDDLE of a word
	part	part	pot
	work	work	wuk
	world	world	wuld

4. Another British Anomaly - There can be NO SINGULAR WORD that can represent a GROUP - YE GODS! This drives me nuts! Green Bay EdgeS Out, Green Bay EdgeS Out! Holy verb number, Batman.
	SINGLE Words, which contain multiple objects	American Usage	. British Usage
	Google	Google says use links.	Google say use links.
	Microsoft	Microsoft does search well.	Microsoft do search well.
	group	The group says no.	The group say no.
	company	The company sells trash.	The company sell trash.
	-	USA is more highly evolved - The British are incapable of grouping multiple objects into a name of a group, which is SINGULAR. No matter what the word is, the verb number is ALWAYS plural. Dedicated to ancient concepts, cannot move forward.	This usage sounds just plain daft to Americans, and drives us crazy.

20	160	220	220

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This Vaughns Common English Usage Errors Summary chart web page was updated on 2011-02-09.