COMMON ERRORS 17, 18, 19 and 20

COMMON ERROR 17: SHIFT OF THE GRAMMATICAL “PERSON”
However many pronouns the language has, the noun and pronoun system of any language has three “persons”. In English, the 1st person words are I, me, we, us; the 2nd person word is you; and the 3rd person words are he, him, she, it, they, them, and every other pronoun e.g. someone and every noun that exists.

Do NOT shift from one “person” to another within a sentence.

WRONG: If one is a student, you need to study hard and get good grades.
RIGHT: When you are a student, you need to study hard and get good grades.


COMMON ERROR 18: WRONG SHIFT OF TENSE
Tense shows time. A sentence may show different times within it e.g. “Before she came over, I had decided what to do.” Here, the word “before” signals that the sentence will contain different tenses. However, unless the meaning dictates that you need a change in tense, keep your tenses consistent.

WRONG: The dean makes careful plans to check on student harassment within the university but all his efforts came to nothing.

RIGHT: The dean made careful plans to check on student harassment within the university but all his efforts came to nothing.


COMMON ERROR 19: FLOATING INFINITIVE
Ensure that infinitives (i.e. groups of word e.g. “to go” / “to have gone” which have no subject of their own) link logically with the subject of a full verb.

WRONG: To succeed in sport, regular practice is necessary.
RIGHT: To succeed in sport, you need to practice regularly.

Note: A person, not practice, will succeed in sport, so a person must become the subject of the full verb.


COMMON ERROR 20: CONFUSION OF CASE WITH PRONOUNS
Inflections (or different forms of a word) given to show whether a noun or pronoun is subject or object of a sentence are rare in English. That’s why some writers are not clear about them.
A few are left in English. They are all pronouns and in constant use.

Personal pronouns e.g. I, me, he, him, she and so on don’t cause much trouble but relative pronouns can be troublesome e.g. I know whois coming; and interrogative pronouns e.g. Who gave you the apple?

“WHO” is always the SUBJECT. E.g.
I wondered who she was. OR Who is that?

“WHOM” is the OBJECT. E.g.
I wonder whom you insulted. OR Whom did she meet?

In some cases, although strict grammar requires whom to be used, these days most people say and accept sentences e.g.
Who did you take to the party?

HOWEVER, to use whom when you should use who is seriously incorrect. So, if in doubt, always use “WHO”.

Try to avoid all 20 irregularities especially the first 10 which tend to make writing ambiguous.