All those who have an Internet business should know how important it is to write well and not make grammatical errors in any of the texts that they show to the public.
For this reason, the author must master certain techniques so that he can, in addition to certifying the quality of the focused topic, guarantee that his text is read and understood by the public.
The quality of your product is directly related to the quality of what you write about it. For this reason, it is always good to be up to date with all the techniques involved in good text production, such as .
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In truth, grammatical and spelling errors, from the simplest to the most complex, convey a terrible image of us to our audience. And some mistakes are classic.
So that you can not only persuade your audience, but also make sure that you do, we are going to show you the 17 most common grammatical errors and show some examples so that you can differentiate them.
1. You-you, my-me, he-he
Perhaps this is the most frequent error when writing. Because they are forms that sound the same, but are written differently, they differ only by an orthographic accent, which is recognized when they are more accentuated when speaking.
The accented ones are personal pronouns, that is, they refer to people or personalized entities: you (you are the indicated person); me (for me, methodical study is fundamental); him (I hope he tells you the truth).
On the other hand, unstressed words are possessive, such as my (my house is very beautiful), you (your story has moved me), or an article the (the truck is loaded with sand).
Our experience shows us that the best way to tell the difference between with and without an accent is to read the sentences out loud!
2. Is everything spelled with s, coz?
In Latin American Spanish we use seseo, that is, we pronounce c and z in the same way when it sounds the same as an s. The exception, of course, is when c comes before a, o, and u. In most of the regions of Spain, on the other hand, c (before e, i) and z are pronounced by putting the tip of the tongue between the teeth.
It is very likely that the same pronunciation of the 3 letters is the cause of many grammatical errors.
The solution? – A lot of reading and writing, writing, writing…
3. With me ll?
This error is very common in large areas of Latin America, especially in the Río de la Plata variant. In its origins there was a distinction between the sound of the double ele and the Greek i or ye, but now the Royal Spanish Academy accepts the , that is, both sound like a Greek i.
In addition to knowing your , our recommendation remains the same: read, read, write, write…
4. The h is silent… but it exists!
Few of us have learned the meaning of homophones, those that are pronounced the same but have different meanings and are spelled differently. Some of them are differentiated by the initial letter hache.
These are real headaches that lead to countless grammatical errors, but it is certainly not the same, hello! (greeting interjection) que ola (wave formed in the water); deshecho (participle of the verb undo) that I dispose of (garbage, residue) and leaf through (turn the pages of a book) that leaf through (look), to give just a few examples.
Remember to place the h in front of the diphthongs ua, ue, ui, when they are at the beginning of the word, like . The same happens with diphthongs in the middle of a word (cacahuate), and with the syllables ie or ia ().
5. And the hiatus, do they have an accent or not?
This is one of the most common mistakes we make when writing, whether with or without a spell checker, with or without a lot of practice.
We call the sequence of two vowels that are pronounced in different syllables . There is a hiatus that necessarily requires an accentuation, and that takes place when an open vowel “a – e – o” and a closed vowel “i -u” come together.
In order not to make a mistake, it is also necessary to follow the basic rules of accentuation of .
Examples: Maria, corn, did, fall, coffin.
6. Con go con j What a problem!
Hardly anyone makes grammatical errors if they have to write go with j when the letters are followed by a, o, u.
But the drama is enormous in the moment that precedes the e to the i.
In any case, the presents us with a set of rules intended to help us remember when we have to use one or the other.
- Words with the prefix geo- of compound words are written with g: geography, geometry, geology…
- the ending -gen of the names: origin, margin, aboriginal…
- Words with the ending -jería are written with j: concierge, locksmith, etc.
- the tenses of the verbs whose infinitive has that letter: crunches from crunches or works from working
7. Use b instead of v
We are talking about a true classic, even because it defines that there is no oral difference between words like boat, bag, see and life, which can lead to grammatical errors.
When they taught us to write, they used to tell us with b for donkey, v for cow, long b or short b, but although we have a thousand resources to write correctly, when it comes to doing it… we are wrong!
8. “There”, “there”, “there” and “there”
Here everything seems simple, but in the end it is a real puzzle.
The first refers to the verb “find”, in its third person singular of the present indicative or the second person singular of the imperative of the verb “find”.
“” can be a type of tree and also the verb “to have” (first or third person singular of the present subjunctive of the verb “to have”).
“” is a noun that refers to a woman in charge of taking care of children.
And “there” is an adverb of place.
- Find the 5 grammatical errors in this exercise.
- We wish you had a lot of success this weekend.
- The nurse did not come on Monday to take care of the children because she was sick.
- The notebooks are there.
9. “There”, “there” and “ouch!”
“There is” belongs to the verb “to have” and is its third form of the singular, being used in this way both when it is about one object or several.
“There” is an adverb of place very close to the speaker.
“Oh!” is an interjection denoting sadness, pain, or sigh.
- There are five people waiting for the bus.
- Maria’s book is there, on the table.
- Oh, it must be hurting you a lot.
10. “Done” and “made”
Although they are pronounced the same way, we confuse them when we write them: fact is the participle of the verb to do; and echo means eject, put or throw.
- Have you done the proposed exercises?
- She throws leftover food in the trash.
There is the variant “in fact”, whose meaning is ‘in reality’, which is also written with h.
- In fact, I was expecting you later, after noon.
11. Because / why / why
The nightmare of those who begin to write. We are talking about classic grammatical errors worldwide.
Because: causal conjunction that introduces subordinate clauses that express cause, as well as heading of the answers to the questions introduced by “why”:
- The joy was total because we celebrated Roberto’s birthday and Mariana’s return.
- “Why didn’t you explain the situation?” ‘Because I didn’t want to create any trouble.
Why: used in interrogative sentences (direct and indirect). “I don’t know why you get so angry.” “Why didn’t you come to the Carnival party yesterday?
Why: masculine noun that is equivalent to cause, reason, reason. It is normally used preceded by an article or possessive: “He does not understand the reason for your attitude”.
The solution? read, pronounce aloud and practice, practice…
12. Days of the week and months of the year with capital letters
In Spanish, all the days of the week and the months are written in lowercase.
Possibly there is a contagion from English, where the months of the year and the days of the week are capitalized. Will that be the problem?
Enough of “October”, “March”, “December” and limited company, except when they are at the beginning of a sentence, obviously!
13. Excessive use of commas
Our tendency when writing a text is to put them absurdly because we think that it helps to breathe while reading, but… do we read aloud on the Internet?
The Peruvian linguist called the comma between subject and verb, firstly, and when the subject is a complete subordinate phrase, secondly, as “criminal comma”.
- Paul waited for his friends outside the school.
- Having a snack in the afternoon was what he liked the most.
14. Prefixes: together and without hyphen
Among the most repeated grammatical errors is the use of prefixes. To avoid it, it is necessary to follow 4 rules:
a) Prefixes are always written together with the word they accompany.
- Counter offer, former secretary, unethical, suburban
b) Separated with a hyphen when the word that accompanies the prefix begins with a capital letter or is a number.
- Under-17, pro-Trump, anti-UNESCO.
c) Separated by a space and without a hyphen, if the prefix affects several words that have a unitary meaning.
- Super good information, deputy prime minister, anti Federal State.
d) Combination of several prefixes: they are linked to each other and to the term they accompany.
- Super super cool, anti aftermarket, mega mega smart
15. Capitalize after a colon
According to , the colon represents a pause greater than that of the comma and less than that of the period. They are written in lowercase letters attached to the word or sign that precedes them and separated by a space from the word or sign that follows them.
Example in bullets:
- White: innocence, freshness, simplicity, purity.
- Black: sobriety, mystery, power, silence.
- Green: growth, hope, nature, balance.
- Blue: fidelity, progress, seriousness, loyalty, harmony.
The only exception to capitalizing is when entering a quote from someone.
- The other day my cousin told me: “Jorge, don’t delay any longer and start working on what you like”.
16. Use of accent marks where it is no longer necessary
Like it or not, the constant updating of the RAE entails changes that are not widely accepted, but even if we like them more or less, they must be put into practice.
These include the adverb “only”, the demonstrative pronouns “this”, “that”, etc., and the accent between the numbers to differentiate the letter “o” from the number “0”, since they gave rise to confusion. The Academy argues that they are “very rare cases” and that “they are easily resolved by the context.”
- I only ask you not to stay home alone.
- It seems that this is the best possible example of virtual reality.
- We will buy 5 or 6 books to be able to study more comfortably.
17. Missing the first question mark and exclamation mark
The only clue we have in Spanish to recognize that a sentence is a question or an exclamation is the…
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