Words that aren't

Susan Pierotti, Creative Text Solutions English is quite a difficult language to learn to write. The spelling is so irregular that there have been moves since the 18th century to standardise it. Noah Webster tried with his dictionary in the United States but it backfired. Instead, we now have UK and American spelling to contend with! Here are a few common mistakes. Thankyou I see' thankyou' written as one word quite often, particularly in a sentence such as: 'He sent me a thankyou card.' Another variant is 'thank-you'. It is always two words: thank you. You can send as many 'thank you' cards as you wish, but not' 'thankyou' or 'thank-you' ones. Alot No such word exists. 'A lot' is a phrase of  two distinct words. People probably bunch them together as they look inconspicuous or flat separated (or a result of fast or clumsy texting). Try these words to replace them: frequently, often, many times. Greengrocers' apostrophes Vegie's, tomato'es, childrens', womens' - these are not words. The first two are not plurals. Apostrophes aren't used to make plurals. Just leave out the apostrophe and it's fine as it is.       The latter two don't make sense either. If you eliminate the apostrophe, is there such a word as 'womens' or 'childrens'? No: the apostrophe goes after the plural form of the word and before the 's' to make the possessive form of the noun - women's, children's.   There aren't too many grammatical rules in English that are constant but if you follow these ones, you'll be on the right track! However, if you are still unsure, the services of a professional proofreading and copyediting service will assist you with accurate and comprehensible grammar. Contact www.creativetext.com.au for further assistance.