When you slip up on your grammar, you will look like you are uneducated. If you are in a position such as a job interview, you could easily sacrifice your hard work in getting the interview because of a lack of training in grammar. Luckily, English grammar is easy to get down.

Possession is a common theme in the English language. When you are showing possession with “your,” don’t confuse it with “you’re” or “you are.” Many people, even native speakers, will forget this rule. An example with both words in a sentence would be “The book is yours, but you’re required to keep it clean.” If it helps you at all, mentally replace the contraction with the phrase “you are” to see if it fits correctly.

Probably the second most common mistake in grammar is “there” being confused with “their.” The word “their” shows possession, while “there” is indicating a location. If your neighbors own a pool, you would say “The neighbors often swim in their pool,” and use there as “Sometimes I swim over there.”

Sometimes even the professionals can get tripped up on the proper usage of some words. “Effect” and “affect” is a pair of words that tend to do this. When you use the two words, always remember that “affect” is going to be a verb, and it will do action in a sentence, such as “Germs affect health.” On the other hand we have “effect,” which is a noun or adjective, and is used in a case such as “The effect of being sick is missing school or work.”

When migrating to English from another language, you will agree the change isn’t easy. Some grammar structure is hard to get down, such as using “a” and “an.” When using “an,” you should verify the next word either starts with a vowel or sounds like it does. It’s easy to see that a word starts with a vowel, but a word such as “hour” could throw newcomers off. The best bet would be to learn different words and how they sound to prevent making a mistake.

“Good” and “well” are taught incorrectly in common United States slang. It’s common to say “I am feeling good,” but this is actually not correct. “Good” is not a noun, but instead an adjective. “Well” is a noun, and would instead take the place of good in this case. “I am/am not feeling well” should be the proper response if asked how you are feeling.

In Conclusion

The English language is a tough one to master. Don’t give up in your struggle to succeed in English, and in as little as a year it’s safe to say you can have the majority of the language down. Keep up with your practice and you will see results.

Learn more about Online English Tests and Learn English Online.