We’ve all seen the there/their/they’re and to/two/too rants. Improper grammar is annoying and I frequently rant about these types of mistakes myself. I thought I would share some of my ‘favourites’.

peek/peak/pique
peek – to sneakily look at something
peak – the highest point
pique – to stir up or start a feeling
Taking a peek at the peak of mount Kilimanjaro may pique your curiosity.

lightning/lightening/lighting
lightning – that bright flashy stuff in the sky during a storm
lightening – getting brighter
lighting – means of making a space brighter
The lightning flashed, lighting up the room and lightening my mood.

who’s/whose
who’s – contraction of ‘who is’
whose – belonging to who
Who’s going to tell you whose turn it is?

bear/bare
bear – a large hibernating mammal (n.) OR shouldering a burden (v.)
bare – not clothed or hidden
Some people can’t bear being bare naked.

than/then
than – a comparison
then – a time
I was never angrier than I was then.

ya, yeah, yea, yay
ya – shortened slang of ‘you’
yeah – an agreement
yea – a vote in favour of
yay – exclamation of excitement
Yay! Yeah, I vote yea, ya know?

words people say that don’t exist:
coversate – you mean converse
orientate – you mean orient
presentate – you mean present
idention – you mean indentation
addicting (exists but used improperly) – 9 times out of 10, you mean addictive

Irony – This graphic contains grammatical errors. (The punctuation should be outside the quotation marks.)