Editing Etiquette

Today I'm going to explain one of my pet peeves. Besides being a spelling nut, I hate when words are misused. I hate when the wrong form of the word is used, because I immediately read it in my head as the way that it's spelled and it's distracting to the story.

So I'm just going to make a list of words and the right way to use them. 

they're- contraction for 'they are' (They're in the yard.)

their- possessive pronoun (Their car is in the shop.)

there- adverb specifying a place (It's over there.)

your-possessive pronoun (It's your cookie.)

you're- contraction for 'you are' (You're next in line.)

to- a preposition (We're going to the mall.)

too- meaning 'also' (We're going too.)

two- the number (We have two cats.)

principle- meaning 'basic truth or law' (An upstanding citizen has good principles.)

principal- person in charge of a school (The principal called my parents.)

than- conjunction used to compare (One is better than the other.)

then- adverb denoting time (Just then, there was a knock at the door.)

lie- to recline or rest on a surface (I need to lie down.)

lay- transitive verb, to put or place (The book lay on the table.)

accept- to receive (I can't accept such an expensive gift.)

except- preposition meaning 'excluding' (Everyone except my brother was at dinner.)

These are just the main ones, but I'm sure there are more. Some of these are difficult to mess up, but some are easy to confuse. It just takes practice and studying to get the hang of using words properly.

On a side note, it might be nice to learn the basics so you don't drive your editor insane. Generally, editors are pretty nutty about grammar, spelling and word use, so it might save them some grief if you at least know the difference between 'there' and 'their'.

Thanks for stopping by!