National Grammar Day: Top 5 grammar mistakes

Grammar nerds, rejoice! National Grammar Day is Thursday, March 4th, and it’s the perfect day to celebrate the idiosyncrasies of the English language and study up on some of the common grammar mistakes.

Grammar is something that most people struggle with and in ways we may not realize. Inc. Magazine published a list of 43 no-nos. Two of the most common are the use of the words “Me” and “I” when referring to oneself along with another.

“I hear people saying things such as ‘Me and Brandon met at Starbucks this morning’ all the time, even though it’s always wrong,” writes Inc. reporter Christina Desmarais.  “‘Brandon and I met at Starbucks this morning’ is correct.”

Those types of simple mistakes begin in America’s schools.

The homework help platform Brainly surveyed 1,700 high school students nationwide to learn about the most common grammar mistakes, their opinions on controversial grammar-related topics like the Oxford (serial) comma, and more.

“While grammar can be a common source of stress for both students and parents alike, it’s an important subject for people to master so kids are able to express themselves and their ideas effectively,” says Patrick Quinn, Brainly’s Parenting Expert.

The top 5 most shocking grammar-related learnings from the survey are:

• Roughly 53% of single U.S. students said that bad grammar is a dating deal-breaker.
• Nationwide, 66% of students said they prefer a writing style that uses the Oxford comma.
• Nearly 8% of students said they think their grammar is better than their English teacher’s.
• 36% of students said writing essays causes more stress than other types of homework.
• About 43% of students said their most common grammar mistake is not knowing when to use a comma or not.

The top 5 states where students said they think having good grammar is very important are:

• Virginia (68%)
• Pennsylvania (62%)
• Massachusetts (59%)
• Indiana (57%)
• Connecticut (53%)

The top 5 grammatical spelling errors students said they see their peers make most often are:

• They’re / their / there (32%)
• It’s / its (24%)
• Your / you’re (19%)
• Too / to (13%)
• Who / whom (12%)

But what does this mean for students?

“One way for parents to encourage kids to learn good grammar habits is to review their written assignments before they turn them in, so they can be made aware of any errors and learn how to fix them.” says Quinn. “And if the grammar is too tough for parents, they can turn to online resources like Brainly to get unstuck on tough grammar problems and go from questioning to understanding. It’s also good practice for students to offer grammar help to others on Brainly because it reinforces their grammar knowledge by having them explain grammatical concepts to others.”
Ahead of National Grammar Day self-professed “word nerds” can practice their English skills on www.brainly.com and find out how to celebrate the holiday HERE.