Easy way to remember grammar rules

[Knifeboy]

Grammar rules never seem to be very easy to follow; in particular the notorious “exception to the rule” rules.

 

Over the years I have assimilated a few cheats that help me to clarify what word to use, and when to use it (remember these are only general rules).

 

For example I have a fairly easy way to remember when to use there, their, and they’re.

 

The way I remember when to use the word “there” is to drop the “t” off of the front of the word, so the word becomes “here”. When I think of the word here, I think of a location, so I use the word “there” when I need to show location.

For example; if I was to use the sentence “there are two boys at the store” I know to use “there” instead of “their” or “they’re” because “there” helps show the location. If you drop the “t” and recreate the entire sentence, the sentence still makes sense “here are two boys at the store”.

 

The way I remember when to use the word “their” is again by dropping the “t” off of the front of the word, so the word becomes “heir”. When I think of the word “heir”, I think of someone who possesses the rights to something. This helps me to remember that “their” shows possession.

 

I don’t see very many people mess up this last one; however, I remember when to use “they’re” by dropping the apostrophe, and making the two words that “they’re” represents, “they are”. When used as two separate words it’s kind of hard to use this one incorrectly.

 

So next time you are writing and you need to employ one of the above, just stop and ask yourself if you are trying to show possession, location, or something else.

 

 

The next one that I have figured out how to fix fairly simply is when to use desert, and dessert.

 

Desert is an arid region (Arizona).

Dessert is cake, pie, fruit, pudding, ice cream, etc., served as the final course of a meal.

 

The way I remember how to differentiate the two words is by saying to myself “You can never have too much of a good thing”. If you think of the letter “s” as “the good thing” you can all remember that dessert is better than desert, because it has more of “the good thing”.

 

The last one I can think of right now is the difference between then and than.

 

The way I remember which one to use here is pretty simple. When I was growing up my dad always used to say “I would rather be lucky than good” I would always laugh at him, and now I say it all the time as well. When my dad says it he means he prefers to be lucky as opposed to being talented. However, if you stop and think about this sentence for a minute you can actually say it with either “than”, or “then”. If you say it using “then” the sentence means something completely different than if you use “than”. For example, if I was to say to you “I would rather be lucky, then good” It would mean that I prefer being lucky right now, and then at a later time, I want to be talented.

 

So next time you are in a dilemma as to what word to use, just ask yourself; would you rather be lucky “than” good? Or would you rather be lucky, “then” good?

 

I just wanted to share a couple little tricks that I have learned with you. I am sure there are many more little tricks to remembering these types of things out there; so if you know of any share them with everybody, and we can all learn a little.

 

Maybe someone has a good way to remember which witch to use

 

P.S. I know I didn’t make the grammar perfect in all my paragraphs, I was just trying to share some tricks.

 

[bowhunter4life]

ThX!

[The Coues]

Nice...

[.270]

my grammar had a lotta rules too, but none of em were about spellin' nothin. most o' her rules were about no fartin' in the house, no pigs in the house, no lightin' farts or pigs in the house and no feet on the furniture. Lark.