Collective nouns: 'The group' is or are

The group is: When you take a collection of people/animals as a whole unit because they act in unison.

• The group gets together for quarterly meetups.

The group are: When each entity in the group is expected to act differently and individually.

• The group write their names in the submission form before entering the room.

Here are more examples:

• My family lives in Sri Lanka.
• My family are having lunch at different times.
• The police serves the public.
• The police were running in different directions.

If it seems too awkward to use a plural with a collective noun, use a phrase like "family members". 

I vs Me

Whenever you do the action in a sentence (you are the subject,) use "I."

• I saw my dancing teacher in the bus today.

Whenever you have an action being done to you in a sentence (you are the object,) use "me."

• My dancing teacher saw me in the bus today.

When you add a second person to this sentence, nothing should change.

• Mary and I saw my dancing teacher in the bus today.
• My dancing teacher saw Mary and me in the bus today.

Richer or more richer?

When the comparative form of an adjective changes, say from tall to taller, happy to happier, rich to richer, poor to poorer, do not use "more" before it. 

• He is richer than me.

When the comparative form of an adjective doesn't change as in boring, enjoyable, common, difficult, tired, you use "more" before it.

• This year's paper is more difficult than the one before.

More examples:

1. Hard work made him richer but more tired over the years.
2. The new economic policies will make the rich richer and the poor poorer. 
3. Viral flu is more common during this time of the year.

None is or are

Here's a simple rule of thumbs:

When you use 'none' with a plural noun, it takes a plural form. A plural noun suggests several discrete, countable units (e.g., cars, people, students.) 

• None of the cars in the car park are red.
• None of us are perfect.
• The teacher turned to the students and said "none of you (i.e., the students) have done the homework right."

When you use none with a singular noun, it takes a singular form. 
A singular noun is either not countable (e.g., water, art) or suggests a whole unit rather than many discrete units (e.g., money, food.) 

• None of the water is polluted.
• None of my art was selected for the exhibition.
• None of their money was spent on junk food.

Agree vs Sympathize vs Empathize

I recently said that I agree with someone although it is hard to sympathize with him. This lead to a conversation about the difference between the following phrases:

• I agree with you: This is usually just an acknowledgement.
• I sympathize with you: This goes beyond just an acknowledgement to an emotional response to what the other person is going through. You might feel pity or sorry for the person. 
• I empathize with you: This is even deeper than sympathizing. You don't just feel sorry. You understand how the other person feels because either you or someone close to you have been in a similar situation, or you are naturally a very empathetic person. Sympathizing does not necessarily mean that you can relate to someone in such an intimate level. 

A lot vs lots

After seeing my previous post, someone asked me the difference between 'a lot' and 'lots.' I think they are the same except that 'lots' sounds more casual than 'a lot.'

I have lots of friends - Casual
I have a lot of friends - More formal

One word vs two words

Have you ever written sentences like these?

Enter your log in name
Login to the server

Verbs (words that convey an action) are sometimes combined with other words to make up what we call phrasal verbs. For example, 'log in' is a phrasal verb. You write phrasal verbs as separate words; not as one word. 

The single-word form (login) is actually a noun or describes a noun (adjective). Phrasal verbs usually have such a noun/adjective form, which is often a single word but is sometimes hyphenated. Writing the noun/adjective form as two separate words is just as incorrect as writing the verb as a single word.

So, the correct way to write the above sentences is,

Enter your login name
Log in to the server

In summary

1. If you convey an action, use separate words. 
2. If you convey a subject or describe a subject, use one word. 

Here are few more examples:

1. Did you print out the letter?
2. The printout of the letter is clear.
3. He forgot to shut down the server.
4. The shutdown was caused by a power failure.
5. This is a drop-down list.
6. Zoom in to get a detailed view of the image.
7. The zoomed-in view of the image is clear.
8. She walked up to the check-in counter to check in her bags.