your tongue the tide, your lips the shore

Than vs Then

Than is a comparative word, used to show the difference in qualities between two nouns:

eg. Ted is a faster skater than his brother, Jim.

Then is a word used to show a sequence of events in time.

eg. First I took the dog for a walk, then I went to my friend’s house.

*there is no case where the comparative than follows the coordinating conjunction “and,” nor will it follow a comma.

Me vs. I

I is the nominative first person singular pronoun.

Me is the accusative/dative first person singular pronoun.

To tell which one to use, it’s quite simple: just take out the rest of the group and see if it still makes sense.

eg. My friend and me went to the store. One would not say “me went to the store,” simply because we know it’s just plain wrong, so the correct pronoun to use here would be I.

eg. Jane came shopping with Bill and I yesterday. One would not say “Jane came shopping with I yesterday,” so the correct pronoun to use would be me.

Just remember that I is always the subject of a sentence, and me is always either the direct or indirect object.

Some common homophonic troubles:

You’re vs. Your

You’re is a contraction of the second person present tense conjugation of the verb “to be.” Fully written out, it is “You are.”

The grammatical case system still exists in English, and your is an example of this. Your is the second person singular genitive (possessive) pronoun, as in your dog ran away this morning.

They’re vs. Their vs. There.

They’re is the contraction of the third person plural of the verb “to be.”

Their is the third person plural genitive pronoun, as in their daughter was distraught when they took away her laptop.

There is a simple nominative (subject) pronoun, as in there are two oranges left. It can be either singular or plural. It can also be an indicator of location, as in the desk is over there.

It’s vs. Its

This one confuses people a lot.

With the apostrophe, it’s is a contraction of “it is,” which is the neutral gender third person singular conjugation of the verb “to be.”

Without, its is a neutral gender singular genitive pronoun.

Punctuation marks and when to use them!

Lots of people asked for this one…

For the easy one first, the one that shouldn’t require help. A period goes at the end of every sentence that does not end in a question mark or an exclamation mark. There are no exceptions to this.

Now that that’s out of the way:

brief grammar lesson on the homophonic (same sound) words to and too:

To is a preposition that most frequently indicates direction of a verb towards an indirect object. Also used to precede an infinitive (unconjugated; no tense) verb, as used in this sentence.

ex. I’m going to the store. I want you to come with me.

Too is a word that basically means “as well.” It is used to indicate that an action has been done more than once.

ex. I’m going to the store, too! Fancy that!

If you’re ever in doubt, just replace the word with “as well” and see if the sentence still makes sense. If it doesn’t, you’ve used the wrong word. Simple!

edit: Too is also used in describing excess of something (or lack thereof), but only when preceding an adjective or quantifier. Ex. “There are too many people here!” (thanks to emmafatty for pointing this out.)

brief grammar lesson on the interrogative pronoun who:

who - the nominative form. For use in sentences such as “Who are you?”

whom - the dative form. ex. “To whom is the letter addressed?” Used to indicate an indirect object. Obviously not commonly used.

*edit: also the accusative form to refer to the direct object of a sentence - “To whom did he speak?” or “Whom did you hit?” (thanks to harrebscht for pointing this out)

whose - the genitive (possessive) form. ex. “Whose glasses are these?” This pronoun is an indication of possession. Note that whose and who’s are not the same thing: the latter is a contraction of either “who is” or “who has”. Much like the difference between you’re and your or it’s and its, the apostrophe is not always an indication of possession.

The more you know.

THE SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD

Past subjunctive:

I wish that I was you = incorrect

I wish that I were you = correct. This is used in “if” statements such as “If I were you…” and in statements which follow a verb like wish “that”.

Present:

It’s critical that I’m on time for this = incorrect

It’s critical that I be on time for this = correct

Note that this mood is largely unused colloquially. That said, the past subjunctive is still frequently used.