There seem to be dozens of grammatical errors that pop up in everyday speaking and writing, and they seem to be almost impossible to remember. With the recent rise of “Grammar Nazis” on the Internet, we decided to do some research and find out easy tricks to help you fix those common mistakes.

1. Affect/Effect: In writing, this is one of the most common questions that writers have in the process, so hopefully we can help. Most of the time affect with an a is used as a verb, and effect with an e is used as a noun. That might be tough to remember, but Mignon Fogarty, the Grammar Girl from Quickanddirtytips.com has come up with a pretty easy way to remember this:

“The arrows affected Aardvark. The effect was eye-popping.”

In that sentence, learn to associate affect with an a with the a-words, “Aardvark” and “arrow” where the word is being used as an action. Associate effect with an e with the e-word, “eye-popping,” since it’s a noun.

2. Who vs. Whom: This one is pretty tough and will really only pop up in your life when you’re around a true Grammar Nazi, but definitely something good to know. Here’s a little trick to help you with this:

When writing out a sentence such as, “Sarah handed the ball to Steven” and you want to know whether you’d use who or whom, ask yourself, “Who did she give the ball to?” She gave it to him. So in the sentence I actually just wrote, the correct way would be, “Whom did she give the ball to?” Since him ends in m you use whom.

When you’re asking yourself that question, if it can be answered with he or she, then you would use who. You wouldn’t say, “Whom broke the window? He did.” That would not be correct because he or she don’t end in m.

3. Its vs. It’s: We all know that apostrophes symbolize possession, we’ve got that. People still seem to be making the same mistake though, substituting it’s where there should be its, and vice versa. Alex Santoso from neatorama.com puts it in a very easy context to remember: Can you substitute “it is” into the sentence? If not, then the apostrophe shouldn’t be there!

Example: The cat hurt it’s feet > The cat hurt it is feet. > WRONG!

Conclusion: These are just a few common grammatical mistakes made everyday by many people, even writers. Some others are which vs. that; lay vs. lie; and even fewer vs. less. Hopefully these tips can stick in your head and be an easy way to fix your writing and speaking, especially when you’re going into interviews and revising your resumes!