a little thing called grammar —

If you've read my writing other than this tutorial, you'll know that I am a grammar freak. Did you read what I typed? It's spelt grammar not grammer. If I was your English teacher and I caught you spelling that word wrong, you'd have hell to pay from me. Grammar includes the following categories: nouns, determiners, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions. 

INFORMAL

I didn't wanna go to school but I had to. It going everyday. It's not like I'm gonna learn too much anyway. I was gonna go to the arcade with the guys and skip but I ended up doing what was right and I went to school.

FORMAL

I didn't want to go to school but I had to. It going everyday. It's not like I'm going to learn much anyway. I was going to go to the arcade with the guys and skip but I ended up doing what was right and I went to school.

*all passages were made up on the spot and even I'm confused on what I'm doing now.

As you can tell there are small differences. In the English language -- American English to be exact because that's what I use -- there are very common mistakes that bug me when I see it. Some can be typos and some can be just laziness and the author doesn't check to see if what they wrote is correct or not.

Be careful -- when applicable -- to not mix up the following:

• is and are. [both are verbs] He is going to the store. She is sixteen. We are eighteen years old. You are annoying me with your poor grammar.
• to except or accept. [preposition, verb] Everybody went to the party except Jay. Let's include everyone except her over there. I accepted your form. You were not accepted to our company.
• effect and affect. [noun, verb] The girl's new love affected her life in many ways. The tsunami in Japan made a big effect in a lot of people's lives. Affect means to "influence" hence making it a verb. Effect is a noun meaning "to result" then fill in the blank. Both can be used with an -ed ending without changing their properties (being a noun and a verb).
• alter and altar. [verb, noun] I altered the past with a time machine. The altar is really big. To alter is "to change" and an altar is a religious stand.
• desert and dessert. [verb, noun] "Be sure not to desert your brother in the park like you did last time," Hoya's mother told him sternly. "If you behave I'll make you guys a special dessert." Desert is pronounced DEH-zert. Dessert is usually -- and should be, unless you have an accent -- pronounced deh-ZERT. You stress different parts of the word when you say it out loud.
• i.e. and e.g. for examples. To put it simple, you won't be using this a lot in your writing. Both are Latin simplified phrases. To use i.e. means to say that is. To use e.g. means to say for example. Basically they have the same function.
• farther and further. [adjectives] Farther is a word use to describe physical distances. You would be living farther away from me if you hadn't moved. Further is used for abstract distances. Alec's explanation to what happened is further from the truth than Gabe's bizarre story.
• good and well. [adjective, adverb] He was good at what he did. He said, "Get well!" It won't make sense to say, "Get good." You can only be good at something.
• its and it's. [possessive, verb/contraction] It's two o'clock in the morning. The guitar has a scratch on its base. 'It's' is a contraction of the words it + is. Its is a possessive that does not have an apostrophe. The word 'is' is a verb.
• lay and lie. [transitive verb, intransitive verb] Lay on the bed. Don't lie to me. There are a lot ways to mess these words up as follows: My cat lays on my bed. I came home one day and he was laying on the floor. Let's lie on the floor to watch a movie some other time. Note, all of these examples are wrong.
• more and most. [collective nouns?] I did more than you. I did the most amount of work. I've been seeing you more than I did last semester.  I talk to him the most.
• passed and past. [verb, adjective] I passed you on the way to math yesterday. Let the past be the past; bygones be bygones. He passed (away) two years ago.
• roll and role. [?] Roll up the other piece of paper for me. I got the lead role. You have a role -- as in a part of something -- you can also have a roll -- an object that you can touch.
• than and then. [?] I'm better than you. I'll see you later then. Than compares things to each other. Then refers to time.
• which and that. Which one do you like? I like that one. That's not my preference but that's just me, which is a completely different story since we're talking about you. I can't really tell how to explain this properly, sorry. Just be careful.
• their, they're, and there. Their hair color is all black. They're all Asian just like me. There isn't anything you should be concerned with right now.
• to, too, and two. I went to the store. Jay went to the store that day too. He bought two dozen cookies. Too can be used as a replacement for the word also.
• who and whom. Who is calling? With whom do you wish to speak? Click here for further advice.
• who's and whose. Who's that? Whose backpack is that? Remember that who + is makes who's. The word 'whose' is a possession word.
• Jay and I (he and I) plus me and Jay. Jay and I went to the store together. He and I have the same car as Dana. The teacher was set on giving Jay and me a detention. HINT: when trying to figure out which to use do this, take out the other person(s) and leave just the 'I' or 'me' and see if the sentence makes sense. If it seems like gibberish, it's probably wrong.
• amount and number. The amount of energy it took for him to climb the mountain was extreme. The number of people who went with him was more than expected.
• less and fewer. When using countable things use 'fewer' instead of 'less' in your text. We've had fewer stressful situations, thus less stress. You can count situations but you can't count stress.
• got and have. You got the chicken pox dummy. You have no wisdom teeth now that the surgery is completed.
• tribute and dedication. You dedicate something to someone who is alive. A tribute is to someone who is dead.

Key: bolded are the words that are commonly mistaken/misused. unlined words are examples of the words used correctly. gray can be seen my comments/further explanation

Other (grammar related) help:

• Never end a sentence with a preposition! Here is a list of prepositions for those who don't know a lot of them.
• Always capitalize proper nouns and the first word in every sentence you write. Proper nouns like people you have relations to do not have to be capitalized all the time. If you say, "I went to my aunt's house today." It isn't capitalized. It is if you say this, "I went to my Aunt Jay's house today." Another example, "There are Californian deserts." You capitalize it with this type of situation, "The Sahara Desert is hot." Other exmples, "Hey, earth to Jay." In another case it would have to be capitalized if you say, "Isn't Earth closer to the Sun than Mars is." All three planets become proper nouns then.
• Double check meanings. Some compound words can be used as two separate words. Examples: apart and a part, anyone and any one, backseat and back seat, backup and back up, bailout and bail out, plus sleepover and sleep over. There are more of course. You'll just have to find them.
  • A part of his performance made me taken aback. Break those bricks apart with a Hulk smash.
  • Any one of you could've killed him. Does anyone have gum?
  • Beth is a back seat driver. Singing took a backseat to dancing in Taemin's life.
  • Back up man, I don't understand. Do you have your backup?
  • Bail me out of jail tomorrow. Don't use my bailout money just in case.
  • Guys don't have sleepovers. Sleep over tonight.
• Double check when typing. Watch out for homophones. See list.
• It isn't OK it's okay. Depending on what you're writing, it may be accepted but to write 'okay' but it is better to get into the habit of spelling it out.
• Use 'an' not 'a' before a word that begins with a vowel. I had an apple today. I listened to a CD while I waited. I waited a year for you. Vowels are A, E, I, O, and U (sometimes Y). In most cases I've seen, Y does not count as a vowel. You wouldn't say, I saw an yacht today. You would write 'a yacht' instead.
• Possession depends on number (quantity, population, other).
  • "Jay's dog's name is Peatry." ← The dog belongs to Jay. The name Peatry belongs to the dog. That means both words (proper nouns) should have apostrophes and a 's' to follow.
  • "George and Gina Green have to kids. The Greens' house is very nice." ← The apostrophe is placed after the 's' in 'Green' because there are multiple people included.
  • "James's video game broke." ← James is one person so you put the apostrophe right after his name and add an 's' to finish it off.
  • "Tina, Di, and Fei went to Jill's house for a sleepover. The girls' favorite part was staying up late." ← There is one Jill but there are multiple girls.
• Use the same person (POV). No randomly switching persons (first, second, and third) without some notification. Do not switch POV every new paragraph. Pace the spaces in which you switch point of view.
• Watch your quotation placement. Periods, commas (if needed/used), question marks, and exclamation points go inside the quotations ("").
  • "I just finished 'Harry Potter'," he said to his friend. ← There is no comma in the book/movie title 'Harry Potter' so you place your indication mark that it is a film/piece of literature after, followed by a end quotation mark.

Not ever grammatical error possible is on my list. Go here for a more complete list by someone who I don't know but found on the internet. It's helped me since I saw it -- almost two hours ago of writing this. Further help go here, Guide to Grammar and Style by Jack Linch.