10 Common Grammar Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Grammar mistakes undermine the credibility of even the most insightful writing. When a reader encounters frequent errors, they start doubting the writer's command of the subject, not just their command of language. The good news is that the mistakes that appear most commonly in student and professional writing are a small, learnable set — fix these ten, and your writing will improve significantly.

Mistakes 1-5: (1) Its vs. It's — 'its' is possessive, 'it's' means 'it is'. (2) Their/There/They're — 'their' is possessive, 'there' is a place, 'they're' is 'they are'. (3) Run-on sentences — two independent clauses need a conjunction, semicolon, or period between them. (4) Comma splices — joining two independent clauses with just a comma. (5) Apostrophe misuse — 'the 1990s' not 'the 1990's'; plurals don't need apostrophes.

Mistakes 6-10: (6) Subject-verb disagreement — 'The team are playing' (British) vs. 'The team is playing' (American). (7) Dangling modifiers — 'Walking down the street, the trees were beautiful' should be 'Walking down the street, I noticed the trees were beautiful.' (8) Tense inconsistency — pick past or present tense and stick to it. (9) Vague pronoun reference — 'John told Mark he was wrong' — who is 'he'? (10) Double negatives — 'I didn't do nothing' means you did do something.

The most efficient way to catch grammar mistakes is to proofread with fresh eyes after a break, and to read your work aloud. Your ear catches errors your eye skips over. paraphraserhumantext's grammar checker can identify these ten mistake types and more — offering explanations alongside corrections so you learn the rule, not just the fix. Over time, the patterns you catch with a tool become the patterns you avoid naturally.