Grammar - ways to remember tricker stuff...

[User163639]

I loved the apostrophe thread.

Can we all pitch in some grammar rules that are often forgotten?!

I struggle with whose and who’s etc...educate me?

For who's just remember it is short for who is or who has. So just imagine those in the sentence and you'll know if the one with the apostrophe is appropriate

Fewer and less is one which always bugs me.

Easiest way to remember is that it’s less cake, fewer biscuits, ie if the subject is plural, it’s fewer.

Whose and who’s is more spelling. The apostrophe indicates a missing letter (who is).

@Mumblechum0

Fewer and less is one which always bugs me.

Easiest way to remember is that it’s less cake, fewer biscuits, ie if the subject is plural, it’s fewer.

Whose and who’s is more spelling. The apostrophe indicates a missing letter (who is).

Fewer is for countable items, i.e. fewer raindrops,(countable, tho who would!) less rain. Less is for mass nouns, i.e. less money, fewer £10 notes.

Yes that was my mother's one to help us remember, Fewer in quantity, less in number.

Love this!

Still unsure on who’s or whose? Who’s is who is? And whose is...

Can’t get my head round it so always avoid it!

Whose is this waterbottle?

Who's that?

When is it practise and when is it practice ?

Is s the verb and c the noun as in advise, advice?

But then you have The dog's here, and The dog's bone.

Yes, practise is the verb. But in American it's practice

My bugbear is that the present perfect tense is dying. Eg. It should be "I've been for a walk today", not "I went for a walk today ".

Though to be fair, less can be used in place of fewer more so than the other way round. For example, 'there are "less" cows over there than in this field' works as well as 'there are "fewer" cows', although in general conservation "less" would be more commonly used than "fewer". The latter is grammatically correct.
However, you can have "less" money but you can't have "fewer" money.
Can you tell I've thought about this a lot? Lol. Don't get me started on there, their and they're, I've got a smashing way of differentiating that lot!

For “I” or “me”, just take the other person out of the sentence:

Mum and I went shopping
Or
Mum and me went shopping

Take mum out - I went shopping.

Most importantly, there’s hardly ever a good reason to use the bloody reflexives - myself, yourself / yourselves. Estate agent speak.

millenium I’m still not getting it! I don’t know why I can’t seem to get that one in my head!

tanta totally agree!



supermarket how can you have less cows? Wouldn’t that certainly be fewer cows as they can be specifically counted? Or have I missed something...

winter that’s a great one

What about 'whose hose is this?' to remember 'whose' is the possessive (because hose is on whose... Though if I have to tell you that it's not a good trick!!)

I love this thread. I went to a poor comprehensive school and learnt little grammar. The apostrophe was a complete mystery to me, and when I started by first job my boss, after noticing how clueless my apostrophe placement was, took me to one side and in less than 5 minutes taught me everything I needed to know about apostrophes. I am so grateful to her, and always try to pay it forward.

I always remember discrete/discreet with 'crete is an island, separate.' and then discreet is the other one!

Necessary - a shirt has one collar (C) and two sleeves (S)

I have 2. There is A Rat in Separate. Also the way I remember the difference between stationary and stationery is that the one relating to pens and envelopes etc has an E in for envelopes.

Whose means the person (the thing) belongs to

Whose jeans are in the dryer

(who do the jeans belong to)

That's the only way it's ever used. Everything else is who's.

I bloody love these!

eriq thank you!