So I’m not very good at grammar. I must have skipped learning all the basic rules of it in school because until I was about fifteen years old I still didn’t know when to use its versus it’s. And hyphens (-) compared to commas (,) to split up a sentence? Well, despite Mrs. Petersen’s most valiant efforts to undo what my last english teacher had done, I think I’m still a little hazy on the difference.
Don’t get me wrong - I’m kind of a Grammar Cop and it does drive me bonkers when people write sentences and get your confused with you’re or the three variations of thereare used interchangably, but I just don’t know all the rules.
I’ve known about this particular personal flaw for many many years, so a few years ago I read Eats, Shoots and Leaves (even though there are slight differences in British and American grammar) to help.
And lo and behold! It helped! I now know when to use it’s instead of its (its is possesive; it’s means it is) and can use the semicolon [;] with a moderate to above average success rate though I still occasionally have trouble knowing when to use a colon [:] and thus use them as infrequently as possible. I do know you put them before lists though, right?
RIGHT?
Anyway. If you ever see me completely mangle a sentence’s grammar, just know that I didn’t mean to and I would never use there when it should be they’re, but that as for the more complicated nuances of this stuff… well, I occasionally mess up.