Last September, we rounded up expressions which people get wrong when written down. Now we’re back with another collection of common errors that are spreading rapidly online and giving the Lifehacker Grammar And Spelling Police (GASP) heart attacks.
You don’t have to wander very far on the Internet before you encounter examples of apostrophes being used in entirely the wrong way. Here’s a basic guide to making sure you’re not responsible for howlers like “The problem with it’s design is that it let’s you send a message too easily”.
Our post on ten phrases that are often misused because they were misheard has attracted lots of comments. Many of them related to errors where “of” gets used in place of “have”, such as “should of” instead of “should have” or “should’ve”. That is indeed annoying, but it also serves of a reminder of another useful rule: contractions are often best avoided in your writing.
Anyone can make a typo or a spelling mistake, and fixing those is pretty easy in the spellcheck era. If you want your writing totally error-free, you also need to avoid using expressions which you think you’re using correctly but which you’ve actually misheard. Here are ten examples to watch out for.
