It’s = contraction of it is. It’s a nice day outside.
Its = possessive form of it. The dog dropped its bone.
Spellcheckers can often notice simple sentences with "it" used improperly.
More complex sentences remain problematic. For example, a spellchecker would likely
catch "The dog dropped it’s
bone," but it may not catch "Its
a nice day outside because the city doesn’t have it’s normal
smog." In the second sentence, a spellchecker will likely notice
one wrong usage, but not both of them. Just in case, learn the difference so you
won’t risk the spellchecker making a mistake.
3. Their, there, they’re
These homophones give spellcheckers (and people!) many problems.
The bears went home and found Goldilocks
their.
Spellcheckers often overlook this simple typo. Most people clearly understand the
difference between these three words. Problems arise because it is easy to type
one word while meaning to type another if the two words sound exactly the
same. Utilizing the techniques at the end of the tutorial will help you overcome
this common error. A spellchecker will find the following:
I went to there house.
However, this is a very simple sentence. Consider "Their still sleeping dog
lies there while they’re home" versus:
There still sleeping dog lies
they’re while their home.
Although all three of these words appear in obviously incorrect positions, the spellchecker
may overlook any or all of them.
4. Verb subject agreement
Make sure the subject and verb in your sentence share the same singular or
plural form. Spellcheckers frequently fail to find this mistake.
The data do not support the conclusion.
The above sentence is actually correct. People commonly use "data" as
the singular noun form. "Data," however, means more than one "datum."
To say "The span data does
not support the conclusion" is incorrect because "does"
is the singular verb form of "to do" and "data" requires
the plural form "do."
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