The other day I opened an email newsletter only to be confronted with the opening line “Do you know where you’re business is going?”
My shoulders immediately tensed up. Did I want to continue reading this piece if the sender couldn’t even get the opening line grammatically correct?
Misspelling and bad grammar won’t exactly put your business in the best of lights, but surely it’s not too much to ask that we just try to get the basics right, is it? The common ones that never fail to make me cringe to the tips of my toes are:-
- You’re or Your
- Its or It’s
- They’re, Their or There
- Affect or Effect
- Who’s or Whose
- To, too or two
There’s also the spoken faux pas. How many times at networking meetings have you heard someone utter the line “What I am pacifically looking for is …..” No! The Pacific is a large and very deep expanse of water. Surely what you mean is “What I am specifically looking for is ……”
Maybe I’m just getting old and grouchy, but there’s really no excuse for basic errors in grammar. Please people, check that you’re using the right words before you hit send – whether it’s a text message, social media post, email or newsletter.
I’ll leave you with a joke that’s almost as old as me:
Q – What do you say when comforting a grammar Nazi?
A – There, their, they’re!
Please feel free to share your grammar gripes in the Comments box below.
