How many of us are guilty of doing this?
Friday Fun
Could of, Would of, Should of
“Could’ve,” “would’ve” and “should’ve” are legitimate verb contractions. When you speak these words, they sound like they end in “of,” but this is just plain wrong. Instead they are the contractions for “could have” “would have” and “should have.”
Could of, Would of, Should of
Then vs. Than
Today’s Tuesday Tip comes straight from Grammar Girl herself at www.quickanddirtytips.com.
“Then” has an element of time. For example, it can mean “next” or “at that time.”
“Than” conveys a comparison.
Quick and Dirty Tip: Both “than” and “comparison” have the letter “a” in them, and “then” and “time” both have the letter “e.”
Check out the entire post, including some examples, by clicking here:
http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/then-versus-than
Then vs. Than
Lose vs. Loose
I am a sports fan. I love college football and it’s no secret this is my favorite time of year. Unfortunately, it’s also the time of year when I have to endure one of my biggest pet peeves. Why is it so difficult to know the difference between lose and loose?
Looking at the above photo, I hope you can understand the irony of the statement. If you can’t, never fear, I’m going to give you the definitions of lose and loose and hopefully it will help you use the proper word in the future.
And for the record, I no longer want to hear anyone complain about their team loosing a game again.
Lose is only a verb. To lose is to suffer a loss, to be deprived of, to part with, or to fail to keep possession of.
Loose is mainly an adjective used to describe things that are not tightly fitted. Where it is a verb, it means to release—for example, they loosed the dogs on the intruders—but the word is only rarely used this way. It also has a noun sense mainly confined to the idiom on the loose, which means at large. When you need a verb meaning to partially release or to relax, loosen is usually the best choice.
Lose vs. Loose