by Michy Lynn

Created on: September 22, 2007

Today's commonly misused words we will discuss are: Principle vs principal, two vs too vs to, and your vs you're.

Principle / Principal

The way I learned to remember this word was something my mother, an English major in college, taught me when I was a young child.

Your principal at your school is your pal.

When you are writing about a person who is the leader of a school, he is a principal, not a principle.

The definitions of principle are:

* A rule or standard, especially of good behavior;
* A basic truth or law or assumption;
* Rule of personal conduct

We can take a stand on principle, but you might get detention if you stand on your principal.

Two / To / Too

I rarely see the word TWO used improperly, but I frequently see the words TO and TOO interchanged, and they have very different meanings and different parts of speech.

I'll start with TWO since it's the easiest. Two is a number; it comes after one and before three. It cannot be used to mean anything else except a number.

Now, the word TO is a preposition, most frequently used in a prepositional phrase to provide additional information about the subject of the sentence.

Example: He is going TO the store. He is turning left TO get on the highway.

In this example, HE is the subject, and TO is the preposition, part of the prepositional phrase 'to the store'.

However, many people use the word TO instead of the proper word TOO when needing an adverb and not a preposition. Most frequently TOO can be replaced by the word ALSO or the phrase 'in addition'.

Example: Do you want to go with us to the store too?

'To the store' is the prepositional phrase, and as you can see, this sentence can be rewritten as: Do you want to go with us to the store also?

One way to remember when to use TOO instead of TO is to replace it with the word also, because TOO means to add something to the sentence. If you think of it this way, you can remember: when you want to add something to the sentence, you need to add an O on the end of TO. "I want to go too. (I want to go also.)" Add me to the list, because I want to go!

Now, I did say TOO as an adverb, and an adverb usually modifies a word, most frequently a verb but sometimes it can modify another adverb, and in this instance, the word TOO can be used like this:

This is too easy. The test was too hard.

Again, TOO adds an addition - add an O, add information - you are adding a word that modifies - it wasn't just easy or hard - it was too easy or too hard.

Your / You're

Again, I would like to direct you to my article about possessive and contractions.

Your is a pronoun and you're is a contraction that stands for 'you are'. When writing, if you can replace the word you're with the words you are and the sentence still makes sense, then you need to use You're and not Your.

Your is a second person pronoun, meaning something belongs to you. Your chair is over there. Your hat is on the stand. These are your keys, not mine.

As you'll note, you cannot replace you are with your in these sentences: You are chair is over there. You are hat is on the stand. These are you are keys, not mine.

But in this sentence: Are you sure you're okay with this?

You can rewrite this sentence: Are you sure you are okay with this?

Thus you now know when to use your and you're, simply by always replacing you're with the words you are, and if you can't, you must use your.

Keep writing!

Learn more about this author, Michy Lynn.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.