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Lesson 10 - Common Usage Errors

This document provides a grammar lesson on commonly confused words and punctuation. It addresses the differences between you're/your, its/it's, to/too, they're/there/their, who's/whose, then/than, alot/a lot/allot, and the proper use of apostrophes for plurals. Each section defines the words and provides examples for practicing the correct usage. The full lesson aims to help improve grammar skills through distinguishing between similar words that are often misused.

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kablue470
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© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
616 views

Lesson 10 - Common Usage Errors

This document provides a grammar lesson on commonly confused words and punctuation. It addresses the differences between you're/your, its/it's, to/too, they're/there/their, who's/whose, then/than, alot/a lot/allot, and the proper use of apostrophes for plurals. Each section defines the words and provides examples for practicing the correct usage. The full lesson aims to help improve grammar skills through distinguishing between similar words that are often misused.

Uploaded by

kablue470
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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Common Core Skills Practice:

Grammar Lesson #10


Adapted from resources by Paul Brians available on:
Washington State Univ.: http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html
Youre and your
! Youre is always a contraction of you are.
There are no other uses!
! Your generally comes before nouns and
pronouns to show possession.
Practicing Usage:
Doing nothing is very hard to do; you never
know when ______ finished. ~ Leslie Nielsen
He said it was unbelievable that _____ dog
actually looked like that.
Its and Its
! Its is a contraction of it is or it has. There
are no other uses!
! Its is like your, it is a possessive pronoun. It
is used when you need to demonstrate a
gender neutral possession.
Practicing Usage:
The great white shark avoids chasing ____ prey
through the coral reef.
With the humidity at nearly 100 percent, ____
beginning to rain.

To and too
! Too indicates also (Me too.) and more
than necessary (Bobbi talks too much.).
! To indicates usage as an infinitive verb
(He likes to boogie.) and as a preposition
(The kids ran to the field.).
Practicing Usage:
Im glad ___ hear that youre doing well.
Sushi is ___ expensive to eat daily.
Theyre, there, and their
! Theyre is a contraction of they are.
! Their shows possession, just like its.
! There is naming a location.
Practicing Usage:
______ plans to leave this weekend have been
cancelled.
Experience is the name that everyone gives to
______ mistakes. ~ Oscar Wilde
The extra supplies are in that cabinet over
______.
Whos and whose
! Whos is always a contraction of who
is. There are no other uses!
! Whose is the possessive form of who
and generally is placed before a noun.
Practicing Usage:
The police have a suspect in the case of
the restaurant _____ money was stolen.
_____ responsible for drinking all of the Dr.
Pepper?
Then and than
! The usage of then relates to time and is
used mainly as an adverb that can mean
afterwards, in that case, or at that time.
! Than is used as a comparison and often
used with more, less, and fewer.
Practicing Usage:
Gerard had a healthier physique back ____.
Money is better ____ poverty, if only for
financial reasons. ~ Woody Allen

Defining alot, a lot, and allot
! The word alot doesnt exist. Period. This is a
common spelling error.
! A lot is both a noun, meaning a large amount,
or an adverb meaning to a great extent.
! Allot is a verb meaning to divide/distribute.
Practicing Usage:
Bret has _____ of Star Wars action figures.
In the cafeteria, they _____ one serving of
milk to every student.
Using apostrophes in plurals
Do not use an apostrophe with a plural word
unless it meets one of the rules below:
Rules of apostrophes:
1. To replace missing letters in a contraction.
2. To show possession.
3. In expressions of time.
4. Plural forms of unfamiliar abbreviations, as
well as letters and numbers.

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