My first Blog.

byAnn9597

127 followers

10 years ago

People have been encouraging me to start blogging so here goes. What do I say to people who have so much more experience than I do with a computer? What can I give to them that they do not already have? What area of expertise can I offer that might help some of you? As I read through some of the helpful comments I noticed that some members are having problems with using contractions and other parts of speech that the English language is notorious for. I thought perhaps it might be helpful to explain how to use them.

The main thing about contractions is that they are made up of two words put together and letters removed to shorten them so they are contracted.They are written to indicate speech. If you were at school when I was you would not have been allowed to write contractions in your written work unless you were writing a conversation. Now adays the rules are less strict, however ,this can lead to confusion at times ,particularly if English is not your primary language.When speech is written in a novel or story we use contractions so that in our minds as we read it ,the speech is not stilted and formal.

Now for Lesson 1 (it will be short.)

How are these words different? They sound almost the same. Which one is the contraction?

a) There b) Their c)They're

Answer. c) They're they're .This is the contraction or shortened form of "they are". The apostrophe indicates that a letter is missing. "They're , they're" should be used when writing conversation not when writing prose ,eg" Look they're coming!" "They're playing hockey"

There and Their sound the same but "there" indicates a place.( Over there, Put it there. What do you have there?)

The last "their" shows belonging. (Their house ,their dog, their Mom and Dad)

Please note that all three words start with the letters the... depending on the content of what you are writing you will choose the last few letters.

I hope this has been useful to you. I will do another set in a day or so.

Here is a quick tip. Always proof read your work at least three times. Then get someone else to check it or recheck it yourself after an hour or two. It is very easy to make mistakes or at least I find it so.