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Anyone who blogs quickly realizes that the Internet is as harsh a judge — if not harsher — than your high school English teacher and not nearly as polite about it.

While the difference between “their” and “they’re” is a favorite sticking point and we could go on for days about plural versus possessive, Demian Farnworth at Copyblogger has another set of mistakes to avoid at all costs, those nasty compound word errors.

Never mind v. nevermind

Let’s blame Kurt Cobain, because ever since the poster child for Generation X’s winter of discontent christened Nirvana’s world-altering album Nevermind, I’ve always spelled “never mind” as a compound word.

But, as Cobain knew, that’s grammatically incorrect — to a degree. See, the compound wordnevermind is actually an old fashioned way of saying “notice” or “pay attention,” but used in a negative style:

– “You’ll do well to pay Cobain no nevermind.”

You’ll never need to use “no nevermind” in a sentence, since “pay attention” or “notice” will work better. But do use the two-word variation when you mean “please ignore.”

– “Never mind what I just said.”

A lot v. alot

This one’s pretty easy.

“A lot” is an idiom, and means “very much.”

– “Brian rocks out a lot when he listens to Nevermind.”

“Alot,” on the other hand, isn’t a word, so you shouldn’t use it. Ever. People will laugh at you.

By the way, don’t confuse “a lot” with “allot,” which means to distribute or give out.

– “I will allot four donuts to each of you. That’s a lot of donuts.”

Full story at Copyblogger.

Tips on writing.

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