Mind the traps: three grammar pitfalls to avoid

If you missed out on learning grammar at school – because it was no longer being taught in detail or you were too busy smoking behind the bike sheds – it’s worth swotting up on it now.

Getting it wrong can give your colleagues and clients a poor impression of you; according to the latest research, readers of emails with grammatical errors judge the writer to be apathetic. [See our lead story, Judged by email: how are your recipients reading you?]

To keep your reader from jumping to such (no doubt quite untrue) conclusions, here’s a reminder of some of the parts of speech followed by three top tips.

Parts of speech

A noun. This is a ‘naming’ word to indicate someone or something. There are various types of noun: common nouns (computer, printer); proper nouns (Ernst & Young, David Cameron); and collective nouns (group, team).

A verb. This is most easily remembered as a ‘doing’ or ‘action’ word, for example, ‘The company increased its turnover by 20 per cent.’ All sentences must contain a verb.

An adjective. This is a word that describes a noun. There are different sorts of adjective: descriptive adjectives (a brilliant plan, a stellar performance); numerical adjectives (seven tips, five employees); and possessive adjectives (my email, your presentation).

1. Match your subjects and verbs

Make sure that the verb you use always matches your subject. Consider the following sentence: ‘A batch of computers cost £3,000.’ This is incorrect, because the subject is ‘a’ batch of computers, so you should treat it as singular. The correct version would be: ‘A batch of computers costs £3,000.’

2. Match your nouns and pronouns

Don’t treat a company or organisation as both singular and plural in the same sentence. For example, ‘The L&D department is considering commissioning writing training, but they are not sure which company to use.’ This is wrong because it uses both the singular (‘is’) and the plural (‘they’).

And remember – if you’re talking about the organisation as a whole, it’s singular. If you’re referring to members in the group, it should be plural. Therefore it would be right to use the plural in the example above.

3. Match words in a list

When listing items in a sentence, make sure that the words you use complement each other. Consider the sentence: ‘You can get to the conference by train, car or cycling.’ Here, two nouns (‘train’ and ‘car’) have been mixed with a verb (‘cycling’). It would be better to say: ‘You can get to the conference by train, car or bicycle.’

And if you want to know more

If you still have some burning questions on the subject – such as whether it’s OK to put ‘and’ at the beginning of a sentence – have a look at our Essential grammar and punctuation course.

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Author: Catie Holdridge

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Catie joined Emphasis with an English literature and creative writing degree and a keen interest in what makes language work. Having researched, written, commissioned and edited dozens of articles for the Emphasis blog, she now knows more about the intricacies of effective professional writing than she ever thought possible.

She produced and co-wrote our online training programme, The Complete Business Writer, and these days oversees all the Emphasis marketing efforts. And she keeps office repartee at a suitably literary level.