common mistakes in written English?

Question

Has anyone got any simple ways of remembering which similar sounding words to use in English?

For example, wear, where and were. I already know that you use wear as in wearing clothes but I always got confused with where and wear until I realised that to remember that 'where' refers to a place, I just think of the first two letters refer fo the White House and it comes easy to me.

Anyone got anything similar for other common mistakes?

Answer 1

I know they don't sound alike, but I once saw a priest/vicar on TVAM give this example to help with common spelling mistakes....

He said:

"it is necessary to wear one collar and two socks, but occasionally one will have to wear two collars and one sock"

The collars refer to the letter c and the socks to the letter s - so there are two cs' and one s in necessary and one c and two ss' in occasionally.

Funny the stuff you remember isn't it.

Answer 2

All ways of saying a place (here, there where, somewhere, etc) include the word here. That could help you to remember.

Generally I find looking for patterns and associating a word with a personal understanding is very helpful.

Answer 3

I think with IM's and text messaging, short cuts have become the norm and proper spelling and grammar has become less of a priority.

Common Mistakes I've Noticed:
There, their, they're
Your, you're
Who's, whose
Lose, loose
By, bye, buy
To, too, two

Answer 4

Stationary and stationery. E as in envelope, therefore stationEry means office supplies, stationAry - not moving.

You and I vs. you and me:

Are you coming to the pictures with Bill and me - correct
Are you coming to the pictures with Bill and I - incorect
Take Bill out of the sentence. See what I mean?

Bill and I are going to the pictures - correct
Bill and me are going to the pictures - incorrect.
Remove 'Bill' again and change 'are' to 'am'.

Fun in an odd way, don't you think?

Answer 5

I teach English and bought and brought is a common mistake.

I tell my students to just think bring is with brought, with the "R"

Also I think the most common error is it's and its and similar abbreviations using 's

Answer 6

every body has his own way to remember words
it is either by concentration or by practice.
My friend always wrote theif instead of thief
I made him understand that 'the' does not come in it.
how will you remember these words
hair
here
hare
heir
hear

Answer 7

well, the "s" matter in dessert and desert. the way i remember it is "i want to go to the desert once[in refering to the one "s"] and i want to have dessert twice[in refering to the two "s's"]"


and another is "double the c"", double the "s", and you have success"

are you a teacher? that may be why you are asking this...

Answer 8

Son, sun.
Weather, whether
Hot, Haute
Their, there
Which, Witch

Answer 9

there n their