Mistaken grammar and spelling is alright and even accepted in some contexts like instant messenger or notes to friends, but don’t let it seep into your vocabulary for academic related instances.
The following five examples gives you an introductory look on commonly misspelled and sometimes misinterpreted words and their usages from the “As”. Hopefully, with the information provided, you will be able to learn a thing or too and incorporate these new skills into your vocab. If you already have these tricky words figured out, great!
1. A lot
A lot >> correct (meaning a large portion of something)
Alot > Incorrect
Allot > Used as a verb to assign, give or provide possession to something or someone
Key to Remembering: When referring to much of something using “a lot”, think of the “a” in being important to describing the large amount. Therefore, it would not be connected to the next word. If you’re a kinesetic learner, you can think of taking a deep breath before heaving the large amount. Making it "A breath lot.
2. A Versus An
A very simple concept, however it is easily confused and mistakenly used. A or an refer to something, depending on the first letter of the word following it.
A >> Used when following a word starting with a consonant (B,C,D,F,G….etc)
An >> Used when following a word starting with a vowel (A,E,I,O,U and sometimes Y)
3. Accept Versus Except
Accept >> Meaning to receive
Except >> Meaning to leave out, similar to “but”
Examples: I accept your apology.
I want everything on my pizza except pepperoni.
You should have excepted your offer >> could mean you should NOT have taken the offer.
Affect >> Having an influence on (a-FECT)
These words are commonly confused, and the rules given to tell them apart are often wrong. Affect means “to influence” or “to produce an effect in.” Effect means “consequence” or “that which is produced by an agent or cause.”
Many try to differentiate between the two by saying that affect is a verb, while effect is a noun. Unfortunately, it’s not so simple. The word affect can also serve as a noun, meaning “observed or expressed emotional response,” and the word effect can also serve as a verb, meaning “to become operative” or “to carry out,” as in, “to effect changes.”
Thank you for placing the first one on here. I finally have proof that my friend is wrong.
You are correct! While pronouncing European â€" it’s the “Yoo†syllable that comes first â€" that doesn’t start with a vowel and therefore it’s incorrect to say “an Europeanâ€.
I shall be very greateful if you could
illustrate more example like this.
There are lots of examples you can think of. For example, "a useless piece of junk"- useless stars with a U, but since it sounds like Yuosless, you use an A, not an An. In fact, the letter U itself is preceded by "a", not "an".
You are correct! While pronouncing European â€" it’s the “Yoo†syllable that comes first â€" that doesn’t start with a vowel and therefore it’s incorrect to say “an Europeanâ€.
I shall be very greateful if you illustrate more example like this.
very very fine…!
Wen We go through these words.., it seems silly…! but everyone
must go through this…to have awareness….!
ya i think that's right.for example it is wrong to say 'an European',despite 'European' starting with an 'e' .
You are correct! While pronouncing European - it's the "Yoo" syllable that comes first - that doesn't start with a vowel and therefore it's incorrect to say "an European".
I have a doubt related to a vs an.
What i used to believe is:-
letter followed by a or an is not the determinant of the choice,
but what actually counts is the sound.
like an honest person is having 'an' cause of
the fact that while pronouncing 'honest', 'h' is silent, giving
it a pronunciation of - Onest. (a vowel
sound)
What you think?
I believe you're right in this point. Like a lot of things in English, the "rule", which states that an is always followed by a vowel, is not very strict. The sound of a word can help you determine whether a or an is more appropriate in most times, but when you're not sure of how to pronounce a word things can get confusing. Luckily, we have grammar-check in Word that helps clear things up.
On SATs and GMAT and other tests, minor grammar errors like a/an are usually not a reason for getting a significantly lower score. As a matter of fact, some markers miss them altogether (they're really small and hard to catch). That's a good thing.
Here's another one to add:
Arcane: known or understood by very few; mysterious; secret;
obscure
Example: Sarah knew a lot about Sanskrit grammar and other arcane
matters
Archaic: of, relating to, or characteristic of an earlier or more
primitive time
Example: Ryan's sense of chivalry is rather archaic!
hyphen is only used in words which have two words but act as a single meaning.
what is the difference between something divided by zero and zero dived by zero although both connotes an infinite value.
You may be interested in the Mathematics Community . Feel free to start a discussion to help you and others understand such math tricks as zeros.
anything divide by zero is infinite whereas o divided by o is undefined .the difference is that while anything by zero cannot be calculated,the limiting value for 0 by 0 can be found out.this is done in differential calculus.to explain limiting value let us take the equation y=(xsquared-9)divided by (x-3),in this fraction if we substitute value of x as 3 directly we get 0 divided by0,but if we were to simply the fraction first to (x+3)then substitute the value of x as 3,we get 3+3= 6.
are their any more topics to be noted on 'A'?
If I'm correct in guessing what you mean by topics, then you mean other problems that people may have with other associated "A" letters. There are many tricky words in the dictionary to look over, and to cover them all would be crazy! But these five I have picked because they seem to be the most often confused.
More topics or common problems that I can think of off the top of my head would be:
All ready means everything is complete and ready to go, whereas already is used as an adjective such as "the box is already there" where as all ready would be used as a verb connection like "the box was all ready".
All of these words have some confusion in spelling and usage.
Hope these little tips help!
YA THESE R COMMON ERRORS…. do keep on chnging words>>>
Hey Arjun,
Check out our new lesson on Mistaken B Words for a list of 5 more words that commonly show some errors.
Another idea when trying to use 'a lot' is to simply use a synonym. Chances are, you'll get that one right and it will sound more profound! _ I use this technique in abundance. (<- synonym for a lot, hehe)
thanks for the refresher course. always good to review these rules from time to time.
"You should have excepted your offer." I had to go to my Oxford dictionary for this one. I have never seen nor used "except" as a verb, but you can.
Can you also you use a-lot with a hyphen like I just did?
Hi Andrew,
I looked into it and I'm thinking that the proper usage would be without the hyphen. However it is often used in combination with other words. For example build-a-lot or mix-a-lot. For formal writing, the hyphen can remind one that there is a space in between as well. Hope this helps!
no dude you cant
hypen is only ued with words which have a combined meaning
usually
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