Every day I see so many instances of bad spelling, grammar and punctuation, and it makes me feel sad.

Why? Because the majority of people who write the wrong word just don't have a clue that it's wrong. They've never been taught the differences between words which sound the same but are in fact spelt differently.

Today I received an email from a company who's trying to encourage me to use their services. The very first sentence of their mass-mailing [which probably went out to hundreds if not thousands of people] used the wrong word. Here it is here:

Can you see what's wrong with the word "your" in the example above?

If you guessed that it should be "you're", you're correct! Give yourself a big pat on the back!

The campany wants to say, "If you are [you're] making busines decisions ..." but they chose the wrong spelling.

Many people tell me all they have to do is use a Spell Checker when they type, and they never make mistakes. This always makes me smile, for the reason shown above - if YOU don't know which spelling to use, how will a computer? All the Spell Checker does is check to see that each word is spelt correctly - it doesn't check for HOW the word is used, unless you have a program which does that.

If you DO have a program which offers you choices for the spelling, would YOU know which one to choose - YOUR or YOU'RE?

If not, then all you need to do is understand when to use the apostrophe. Use it to show the omission of letters, in this case, the a of are. If you start to think about all of this, you will soon be able to tell WHEN and HOW to use an apostrophe, and you'll make me very, very happy! :-)

Other apostrophe examples showing omission of letters

"She's [she is] such a great artist!"

"You're [you are] an excellent cook!"

"He's [he is] a fine car mechanic."

"You're [you are] on the right road, just turn left at the next traffic lights!"

"They're [they are] going to miss the concert if they don't hurry!

"Those shoes you're [you are] wearing look so comfortable."

"We'll [we will] be the first in line if we leave now!"

Practice a few sentences like this and see if you can get the apostrophe to appear in the right place.