Grammatical errors are one thing that drives me crazy more than anything. I am not quite sure how after years of schooling people still don't have these down, but I am here to help out and really simplify some common errors.

First up we have "there", "their", and "they're". "There" refers to a place or location of something… "Hey, look at that dog over there!" "Their" is used to express possession of something… "I think that dog is theirs." "They're" is a contraction meaning "they are" … "They're so lucky to own that dog." It's pretty simple, but just to help I made this fun graphic to refer to.

Next, we have "to", "too", and "two". "To" refers to expressing direction toward something… "I am going to Culver's in a few minutes." "Too" is synonymous to "also" … "I want to go to Culver's, too!" "Two" is the written form of the number 2… "I'll have two butter burgers, please."

Our third common error is a tricky one for sure… "effect" vs. "affect". This one still trips me up sometimes but here's the gist. "Effect" is basically the noun version of the result of something, it is not a verb. My mood is the effect of my hunger. Whereas "affect" is a verb. My hunger level affects my mood.

The next is a huge pet peeve of mine: not using "an" in front of a noun that begins with a vowel. If you are writing a sentence about just one elephant, it is not "a elephant" it is "an elephant" because the word "elephant" begins with a vowel. If you were writing about the king of the jungle, the lion, you could say "a lion" because the word "lion" begins with a consonant, not a vowel.

Another common mistake is "then" vs. "than". "Then" refers to the sequence or time of something… "Then we went to Target after seeing dogs and eating Culver's." "Than" is used to compare different things… "Contrary to popular belief, I like Culver's custard more than Andy's."

Last, but definitely not least, "its" vs. "it's". This one can be quite confusing because it does not follow the typical apostrophe-s rule. Usually, when you tack an apostrophe-s on the end of a word, it makes it possessive (Emily's, mom's, etc.). However, in this case "its" is possessive and "it's" is a contraction of "it is".