20 Common Grammar Mistakes That (Almost) Everyone Makes

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That DID it! (The Use of DO, DOES, DID)

Photo grabbed from Claresa.net

Do is a busy word in the English language. It can be a main verb, and it can also be used as an auxiliary verb. It is even used as a noun in informal English or British slang. Dictionary.com tells me that. :)

As a verb, Do takes the form of do, does, and did.

As a main verb, Do takes on the action word. Examples:

I do sit-ups every morning.
I did everything to improve the situation.  

It is when Do is used as an auxiliary verb, especially in the past tense, that I often get bothered. That is because many people use it wrongly. They'd go:

I did not noticed the hole on the street.

I did talked to him about it.

What did you did?

I see these on Facebook statuses, in emails, and even in formal writing. Please people, when you use Do as an auxiliary verb, ALWAYS pair it with a verb in its base form. The image above is a good reminder of this rule. Do is surrounded by verbs in the base form.

Examples:

I did not notice the hole on the street.
I did talk to him about it.
What did you do?

I do know that this medicine is good for us.
I didn't receive your message. (Not: I didn't received your message.)

Got the drift?

The Absence of a Pronoun Antecedent

An online local news provider reported about the same-sex marriage and went:

... This came amid news that New York City has also legalized gay marriage. It became the sixth state in the United States to do so.

There are two things that are wrong in this sentence.

1. The pronoun It in the second sentence does not have an antecedent. The pronoun does not clearly point to New York City.
2. If the It pronoun does point to New York City, then it negates the succeeding thought, which is "the sixth state in the United States..." New York City is not a state. There is a New York state of which New York City is a part of. 

Be careful with your pronoun antecedents and facts.

I've Achieved!

"I've achieved!"

I first saw this slogan on billboards. My first reaction was to ask myself, "isn't the verb "achieve" a transitive verb?"

A transitive verb needs an object to complete its thought. For example: 

The sales team achieved its quota for the quarter. 
The college graduate feels that he has achieved a lot.

But then again I don't think the company--and a call center at that--that put out that slogan didn't make sure that they were expressing a good and grammatically correct sentence. So I looked up again the word "achieve." 


Dictionary.com says:

Achieve
–verb (used with object)

to bring to a successful end; carry through; accomplish: The police crackdown on speeders achieved its purpose.

2. to get or attain by effort; gain; obtain: to achieve victory.

–verb (used without object)

3. to bring about an intended result; accomplish some purpose or effect.

So, there, the word can be with or without an object. 

Thanks to this "I've achieved!" slogan, I am able to review my English grammar/usage again. ;)