Common Grammatical Errors

'Scissors' is always plural.

'Yesterday' indicates past tense ('gave').

'Lie' (to recline) has the participle 'lain', but 'lying' is better; 'lay' requires an object. 'Lying' is the correct active form.

'Would rather' followed by a subject requires the subjunctive (past tense) verb.

'Who' is the subject of 'is honest'.

Distances, treated as a single unit, take a singular verb.

Intervening phrases like 'as well as' do not change the number of the subject ('students' is plural).

'Who' refers to 'boys' (plural), therefore 'have' is correct.

'Its' is the possessive pronoun; 'it's' is 'it is'.

With 'neither/nor', the verb agrees with the closer subject ('students', plural).

'Between' is a preposition, requiring the object form 'me'.

'Unique' is absolute; it cannot be modified by 'most' or 'more'.

'Data' is plural; it requires 'suggest'.

'He' requires singular 'doesn't'.

'Has' requires the past participle 'eaten'.

Names of subjects (singular) take singular verbs.

Playing an instrument requires the definite article 'the'.

'Have' requires the past participle 'gone', not 'went'.

'Everyone' is singular; formal grammar prefers 'his or her' to match the singular pronoun.