Gramatical mistakes that are way too common

An easy one to make (and an easy one to miss when reading it) is "it's" and "its."

It's slightly confusing, because normally we associate apostrophes with possessives, but in this case, "its" is possessive, and "it's" is a contraction of "it is."

But the funniest one is when someone posts, "Your an idiot." Makes me laugh every time.

Not all linguistic faux pas are grammatical. Words and common sayings are constantly mangled; for example:

“Jealous” and “envious” have 2 different—but significant—meanings. “Jealous” means “fear and/or anger that someone may take away someone or something that you have.” The operative phrase here is WHAT YOU HAVE. You can’t be jealous of someone who marries a movie star you’ve never even met. You never HAD her. What you feel in that case is envy. He’s got something you want, but do not have. Also, envy is 1 of the 7 deadly sins, but jealousy is not; but beware of coveting thy neighbor’s wife and making him jealous. Coveting wives breaks 1 of the Ten Commandments.

Another common confusion is between “proof” and “evidence.” They are not at all the same thing. “To prove” means “to put to the test.” The results of the test may disappoint you, not giving the evidence for which you had hoped. “To prove a theory” means to test out the theory and find out if it’s right.

Theories are not valid in a court if law. Trials demand EVIDENCE. When some cop captain barks, “Go get me PROOF,” he does not know whereof he speaks.

The word “verbal” is constantly mangled. The word means “of, or pertaining to LANGUAGE.” It is constantly used as if it were “spoken” or “oral.” A “verbal contract” is often used to mean “a SPOKEN contract.” ALL contracts are verbal, unless they’re done by pantomime.
I often see job postings looking for someone with “strong written and verbal skills.” Writing IS verbal. The posting was written by someone with no verbal skill!

CONTUNUED