Common_Errors_in_English_usage

THAN/THEN
When comparing one thing with another you may find that one is more
appealing "than" another. "Than" is the word you want when doing
comparisons. But if you are talking about time, choose "then": "First
you separate the eggs; then you beat the whites." Alexis is smarter than
I, not "then I."
THANKS GOD
I suppose if you wanted to express your gratitude directly to the deity
you might appropriately say "Thanks, God, for helping our team win the
big game." More appropriate is something more formal, like "Thank you,
God." In any case, the general expression when it's not specifically
meant as a prayer is not "thanks God," but "thank God." Not "Thanks God
Emily hit a homer in this last inning," but "thank God" she did.
THANKYOU/THANK YOU, THANK­YOU
When you are grateful to someone, tell them "thank you." Thanks are
often called "thank­yous," and you can write "thank­you notes." But the
expression should never be written as a single unhyphenated word.
THAT/THAN
People surprisingly often write "that" when they mean "than" in various
standard phrases. Examples: "harder that I thought," "better safe that
sorry," and "closer that they appear." In all these cases, "that" should
be "than."
THAT/WHICH
I must confess that I do not myself observe the distinction between
"that" and "which." Furthermore, there is little evidence that this
distinction is or has ever been regularly made in past centuries by
careful writers of English. However, a small but impassioned group of
authorities has urged the distinction; so here is the information you
will need to pacify them.
If you are defining something by distinguishing it from a larger class
of which it is a member, use "that": "I chose the lettuce that had the
fewest wilted leaves." When the general class is not being limited or
defined in some way, then "which" is appropriate: "He made an iceberg
lettuce Caesar salad, which didn't taste right." Note that "which" is
normally preceded by a comma, but "that" is not.
THAT KIND/THAT KIND OF
Although expressions like "that kind thing" are common in some dialects,
standard English requires "of" in this kind of phrase.
THE BOTH OF THEM/BOTH OF THEM
You can say "the two of them," as in "the two of them make an