I am a little bit grammar-mad, but SPaG (spelling, punctuation and grammar) is probably one of the easiest things to correct in your story for it to sound better and seem more professional overall. You lose a lot of readers from bad grammar because it appears lazy. Also, it makes readers think “if (s)he doesn’t care enough to make the story grammatically correct, why should I care enough to read it?”
I decided to create a thread in which I iron out the most common grammatical mistakes!
Your
“Your” is a possessive word. That means you use it when you’re talking about what the person you’re talking to owns. For example: “your boyfriend” or “your name”.
You’re
This one is short for “you are”. If you can replace the “you’re” with “you are”, and the sentence still makes sense, then it’s this one you should be using. For example: “you’re funny” or “you’re my best friend”.
There
This specifies a location. You’d use this one when you’re pointing at something and trying to tell someone where something is. For example: “look over there!” or “there are lots of people”.
They’re
This one is short for “they are”. You use it when you’re talking about what a group of people are doing or how they are collectively feeling. For example: “they’re going out” or “they’re happy”.
Their
This one is possessive as well. It is used for when a lot of people own something. For example: “it’s their day off” or “she’s their daughter”.
Its
This one is possessive too. It is used when you’re talking about something that an inanimate (non-human or animal) thing owns. For example, “the computer won’t load its own program” or “the doll is in its dress”
It’s
This can get super confusing! You’ve probably been taught that the apostrophe is usually used to show possession. That’s not the case for “its” “your” or “their”, which is why a lot of people make a mistake. This word is short for “it is”, so it should be used when you’re talking about something that an inanimate object is doing. For example: “it’s spinning on its own” or “it’s really cold outside!”
To
This refers to a location. For example: “I am going to the shop” or “I want to go to Disneyland”.
Too
This can be replaced with the word “also” and is used when you’re going to do the same thing as someone else. For example: “I’m going there too” or “it’s my day off too”.
Two
This is the spelling of the number 2. For example: “there were two birds in my house” or “I can see two of you”.
Please feel free to reply to this if you have any more questions about specific grammar rules! I’ll update this if I see any more common ones.