e-Commerce Internet Success | Internet Business English Grammar Tips for Entrepreneurs

I see English grammar errors continually in web pages, e-books, and e-mails.

Perhaps these errors are not important to you.  However, to me and many others, they are greatly annoying.

The written word is your representative to the internet world.  Do you want to be taken seriously?  Do you want the e-commerce or other products you offer on the internet to be taken seriously?

Because there is so much on-line competition, it seems to me that any and every little improvement in your offers -- including grammar improvements -- should make a difference in your results.

If your presentation is slipshod, don't you think a prospective buyer might conclude that your product is also slipshod?

This article may be updated from time to time.  For now, the following frequently occurring errors will be discussed. 

its  vs.  it's
to  vs.  too  (also)
may  vs.  can
continually  vs.  continuously
lose  vs.  loose

Feel free to suggest your "pet peeves" for inclusion.

In the discussion that follows, I'm not going to go into grammatical rules and grammatical points.  In the interests of keeping it useful, I'll just give examples.

its  vs.  it's

When you see "it's", that means "it is".  If you see or write "it's" in a sentence, read it as "it is".  If the sentence does not then make sense, it is WRONG; it should be "its".

Examples of correct usage:
    It's (it is) a beautiful day.
    The keyboard looks OK, but some of its keys stick.

to  vs.  too  (also)

"Too" is a synonym for "also" (or "in addition to").  That is its only use.  Everywhere else, use "to".

Examples of correct usage:
    That is too much.  That costs too much.
    I want to go to dinner, too (also).

may  vs.  can

"May" implies permission.  "Can" implies ability.

Examples of correct usage:
    Mother, may I please, please...
    I know you can (have the ability) to do it, but you may not (permission withheld).

continually  vs.  continuously

This is one that I, myself, have to think about continually.  These two words frequently are used interchangeably, but there is a slight difference in meaning between them.

"Continually" -- repeating frequently, with discrete occurrences.
"Continuously" -- continuing non-stop.

Examples of correct usage:
    That racket went on continuously for two hours!
    You are continually late for meetings, and what's worse, after you get to them, you continuously snore.

lose  vs.  loose

Lose, loser, losing -- these all relate to loss or misplacing something.
Loose, looser, loosing -- these relate to "loosening" a binding, or releasing, not tight.
"Loosing" is not often used; if you see it, it probably should have been "losing".

Examples of correct usage:
    He is such a loser.  He didn't get out of his dot-com stocks even after he started losing big time.  Now with that mortgage he got, he is going to lose everything.
    "That noose is a little loose", said the hangman.  The waist on my pants shrunk; I needed a tailor to make it looser.  "Let loose the dogs of war."

Conquer these errors, and no one will ever know that you suffered through a dysfunctional government subsidized "educational" system.  And, it's quite likely you will see a slight increase in your internet business profits.

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