Give it to me very soon
show it to me gently
tell it to me today
don't hide it inside
prove that you
love me

I feel it I feel it
give it to me
I need it I need it

Put it on paper
send it in a letter
let the mailman
deliver it to me
the message that you
love me

Let your best friend
come to tell
those words I need to hear
send her over to my place
to ring on my door bell
and she can whisper into my ear
that you care and that you
love me

Call me on the telephone
and tell me that I am the one
ask me to come over
so that I can become your lover
and show that I am
in love with you
come on baby
you know my number
don't be too shy
today is the day to try
prove that you
love me

Give it to me very soon
show me that you want me
and I will be there instantly
just for you

I've had LOTS of requests for info on these confusing words, so I do hope this clears up any confusion!

* If you PASS [drive by] a car on the freeway, you've PASSED it. [past tense of *to pass*]

* A Parliamentary motion is PASSED. [past tense of *to pass*]

* A Parliamentary motion is being discussed - the Parliament wants to PASS the motion. [present tense of *to pass*]

* The shop is PAST [beyond] the corner.

TIP: *PAST* the corner is not a form of *to pass*, hence is spelled differently.

TIP: *PASSED* is the past tense of *to pass*.

VERB: TO PASS:

Present Tense:
I pass
You pass
He/she passes
They pass
We pass

Past Tense:
I passed
You passed
He/she passed
They passed
We passed

Make sense now? I hope so!

This has to be another one of the all-time favourite errors people make.

I learnt from a very young age to say the rhyme, "I before E, except after C!", and you know what? I still use it today when I'm writing! That's right - it has stuck with me through quite a few decades, and has been a great tool for me over the years.

Examples:

My sister's daughter is my niece.

Psst! Remember how to spell niece by saying, "Nice niece!" ... which means write the *i* in *nice* before the *e*.

Remember this phrase:

I before e except after c
Or sounding like A
As in NEIGHBOUR and WEIGH
But LEISURE and SEIZE
Do as they please.

i before e	e before i
ancient deficient patient conscience achieve believe brief field yield shield proficient efficient niece pierce fierce	conceit eight either feint height neighbour perceive weigh reign receipt seize their weird foreign leisure

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.