I know this is not an exciting blog, but nonetheless, I think it should be said. 
Actually, it should be repeated. This is not something new, but it is something in need of reinforcement.
Twice today, on national television no less, I heard one of my pet peeves. That is the misuse of badly. Badly is an adverb. Bad is an adjective. So, if you are modifying a noun or a pronoun, please use bad and not badly. Here are some examples. “He was feeling badly today.” This implies that his tactile sense was not working well. If we mean that he was a little under the weather, or not quite up to his usual state of health, then we need to say, “He was feeling bad today.”
Watch for sentences in which you really want the adjective “bad” to modify a noun or pronoun. Carefully avoid using the adverb “badly” which needs to modify a verb. “The pilot was in a bad mood, so he was handling the boat badly.” “Bad” modifies a noun, his “mood,” so we need an adjective. “Badly” modifies a verb, “was handling,” so we need an adverb.
Effect and affect are words where mistaken identity crops up frequently. (I’m putting these in because I often have trouble with those.) Effect means to bring about something. “You can effect good grammar by study.” Or, “Grammatical mistakes have a bad effect on the buyer.” Affect means to influence, or pretend. “Grammatical mistakes affect the buyer.” (It’s easy to see why these two give some of us a lot of trouble.) “You can affect your students.” Or, “He affected surprise, but I knew he had expected it.”
Of course, we all know the difference between “your” and “you’re.” Still, it is amazing how many times you see those words used incorrectly in a book. Carelessness?
Similarly, “their” and “they’re” and even “there” are often misused. No need to explain those here. Again, mistakes involving these words are usually just a result of haste or carelessness.
Easier to understand, but just as incorrect, it the misuse of “its” and “it’s.” Just remember that “it’s” is an abbreviation for “it is.” Remember, the ‘ takes the place of the “i” in the “is.” Try reading “it’s” as “it is.” If that doesn’t make sense, it’s the wrong word. (“Its cover was torn,” doesn’t make sense if you were to read it as, “It is cover was torn.)
“Lose” and “loose” often get mixed up. Lose is the opposite of
win. Loose is the opposite of tight.
“Alot” is not a legitimate word. “A lot” is correct.
And lastly, “farther” and “further.” Both can be adjectives or adverbs. But “farther” means at a greater distance. His house is farther from the fire station than my house. 
He ran farther than I did. “Further” means to a greater extent. Further study is required. I will investigate the matter further. His demeanor made us believe there would be further repercussions.
This distinction is easy to remember. FARther refers to distance.
I apologize for my ramblings on such matters. These words pop up often in our writing, and we should be careful they are not used incorrectly. “But their misuse of the word “badly” always effects me badly (or has a bad effect on me) and it’s obvious the book needs its editors to do further work or they’re going to lose a lot of readers farther down the road.”
I know I’ve made some mistakes in this post. Let me know about them. And I won’t say bad things about you, even though I write badly. (Okay, I know that was bad, or written badly.)
The ones I see confused so often are peek, peak, and pique.
If that view of the mountain peak piques your interest, take a closer peek. 🙂
You beat (not beet) me to it, Deborah! I once had a preteen girl “peaking” around a corner. I will never forget to check these words again!
And we see the “peek” and “peak” mistake often. Thanks for reminding us to be careful on those.
My favorites are the typos that actually could make sense! The ones I have to look at and wonder if the writer really meant them. Great post, James!
Thanks, Deirdre. Those are the worst. They take you out of the story. Good comment.
Two errors that bug me are 1)Confusing “disperse” and “disburse.” Disperse means to scatter; disburse means to pay out. “The police dispersed the crowd.” “The paymaster disbursed the payroll.”
2) Modifying absolute words like “unique.” Unique means “one of a kind,” so something is either unique or it isn’t. It can’t be somewhat or rather unique (somewhat or rather one-of-a-kind). We hear this more in oral English than in written.
Good examples, Donn. I guess we hear it more in spoken English than written because there is no editor for the spoken Engliish. Thanks for pointing out those somewhat unique cases. Oops. Where’s the editor?
The one that makes me cringe the most — and I usually hear it several times a day — is when people use an objective pronoun instead of the subjective. Example: “Him and her are coming for dinner” when it should be “He and she…” and “Her and me are going” instead of “She and I are going.” It’s an easy thing to learn. Simply take out one of the people and say it. “Him is coming to dinner” sounds stupid, therefore, it is. This misuse is so common it will probably be deemed acceptable someday. Doesn’t matter. It will still bother me.
It will bother me also, Earl. If it’s wrong, let’s don’t change the rules to make it right. Thanks.
Great post, Jim. I go over these misused words so many times with my writing students and sometimes hand out lists. Just now, I took “Woe is I: the Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English” by Patricia T. O’Conner off the shelf. In her chapter, “Verbal Abuse”, mixed doubles — words that are routinely confused, like affect and effect, further and farther — are discussed (lots of examples, from a to z), along with other “most commonly mauled words and phrases, and tips on how to rescue them.” I recommend the chapter, and the whole book, to all of us.
Great suggestion, Eileen. I need to get that book. Thanks.
You hit on one of my pitfalls; effect and affect. I printed your paragraph on that and I’ll paste it near the computer. : ) My problem with TV, or one of them, is pronunciation. Thanks to TV, I often hear people mispronounce words. Ask any old-timer about Nevada. It’s not pronounced NevAHda, but Nevada (like Attaboy). So many people have said it wrong that now it’s acceptable either way. It really annoys the heck out of Nevada old-times. Whew! Glad I got that off my chest. 🙂 Excellent post!
Easy way to remember the distinction of meaning between “affect” and “effect”: associate the A in “Affect” with the A in chAnge. Associate the E in Effect with the E in End.
Nice hints, Donn! Those I’ll pass on next time I try explaining. 🙂
There was a time when you could depend on network broadcasts to use the correct pronounciation for words. That tme has passed. So sad. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment, Marja.
Jim, I have some favorites in this department. Some of my rules are old-fashioned (I learned them more than 50 years ago) and are getting out of fashion, but I hold the line against what I learned were corruptions of our language. For example, “alright” is not a word; it should always be “all right.” “Infer” does not mean “imply”; it means to deduce from what has been implied. “Disinterested” does not mean “indifferent” or “uninterested”; it means properly impartial. “Different than” is almost always wrong and should be replaced by “different from”; “than” implies comparison, whereas “from” implies difference or distance. (Exception: “Mice and men are more different than apples and oranges.) “Anymore” and “any more” have different meanings: “Don’t give me any more cookies, because I don’t eat cookies anymore.” And so on…
Thanks, John, for your good additions. As someone else said, we need to be reminded of these, even if we did know them – at some time in the past.
Great post. My bugaboo is…I tend to leave letters out of words, such as typing ‘yu’ when I mean ‘you,’ and ‘you’ when I mean ‘your’. I think the worst one for me is the lie, lay, laid thingy. I’ve got the others figured out. Thanks for tweaking our writing skills. Keep it up. We all either need to learn, or need to be reminded from time to time.
I think my computer just leaves out letters at random, perhaps to see if I’m really paying attention. Thanks for the comment, Elaine.
Usage of “lie” and “lay”: lie, lay, lain NEVER takes a direct object. “I am going to lie down.” Lay, laid, laid ALWAYS takes a direct object. “I will lay the book on the table.” (Lord Byron famously confused the two words in “Childe Harold.”) Always use present tense to choose the correct verb. Then move to the appropriate tense. And remember: You can only “lay down” if you’re carrying duck feathers.
Yep, these mistakes bug me, too!
You asked for any errors to be pointed out, so here’s a typo for you:
Easier to understand, but just as incorrect, it the misuse of “its” and “it’s.”
You meant to use “is” after the second comma.
Great what young eyes can catch. Thanks, Kelly – for more than just pointing out one of my many mistakes.
“Lay, Lie, Laid, Lain” get me every time.
I just remember the line in that old song, Pistol Packing Mama, which correctly said, “Lay that pistol down, Babe.” Lay need an object, unless it’s the past tense of Lie. My oh my, English is difficult. Thanks for visiting and leaving a comment.
Hey Jim,
Good article with lots of information. I agree many times we know the correct word, but our brain doesn’t connect with our fingers! I find that I type site for sight, quite for quiet, and a couple of more I can’t think of at the moment. I know the difference, but somehow my fingers just type the wrong word! A good editor will find those for me.
Farther and Further are two of my biggies. Apparently, so are affect and effect, because I thought, in that last paragraph, you would have been affected when you said you were effected!
~Ann
Did I not say I included “effect” and “affect” because I have trouble with them? I spoke (wrote) correctly– those two give me trouble. Thanks for your spot-on comment.
Too funny but too often too true! ( That may be a record for using “too” too many times in one sentence. My personal peeve is alright. I was taught there is no such word– it’s all right now though apparently to use it!
John agreed with you – alright is not a word. Except, the way the English (American) language is going, it probably will be soon – oris already. If I were texting, I’d probably put down, alrt. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.