Melanie Nilles

We all do it in our writing, particularly when it comes to pronouns. Here is a list of some to beware of when you’re writing:

confusions

its, it’s — “its” is possessive of it while “it’s” is the contraction of “it is”

there, their, they’re — “there” is an adjective telling where while “their” is the possessive of “they” and “they’re” is the contraction of “they are”

to, too, two — “to” is a proposition, “too” is an adverb along similar lines to “very”, and “two” is the written form of the number “2″.

whose, who’s — “whose” is the possessive of “who” or “whom”, as in “Whose book is this?” “Who’s” is the contraction of “who is”.

your, you’re — “your” is the possessive of “you” while “you’re” is the contraction of “you are”

lay, lie — (my biggest problem) Let sleeping dogs lie. Okay, this one takes the award for the worst culprit for confusion. Here’s the breakdown: Lay - (verb) - basically to put something in a particular position. past tense-laid. Lie - to tell a falshood, or to be placed in a particular position. past tense-lay. There is the biggest confusion of these two. With “lay” the subject is doing something to an object; but with “lie”, the subject is having something done by an object. *sarcasm mode on* Perfectly sane English */sarcasm*

spelling typos

loose or lose — If something is loose, it is free, like a horse who breaks loose. If you lose something, it is lost and you must search to find it.

Now, I’ll have to add to the list as I think of more.  Care to add?  Post your comments.  (cross-posted to my Live Journal)