Casual Punctuation tips

30 Mar 2005

Quote by northwest-cpl

Someone else can do plurals and possesive use, because I'm crap with these.
Venusxxx

Simple tip with plurals is...........don't use apostrophes. wink

Think I'd rather pull my fingernails out than get involved with possession though. lol

'The boys school'
'The boy`s school'
The first one refers to a school more than one boy attends. The second refers to a school a boy attends. That could have been phrased a lot better, someone help me out here!
Venusxxx

30 Mar 2005

Quote by VenusnMars

Someone else can do plurals and possesive use, because I'm crap with these.
Venusxxx

Simple tip with plurals is...........don't use apostrophes. wink

Think I'd rather pull my fingernails out than get involved with possession though. lol

'The boys school'
'The boy`s school'
The first one refers to a school more than one boy attends. The second refers to a school a boy attends. That could have been phrased a lot better, someone help me out here!
Venusxxx
But what about the boys' school?

30 Mar 2005

Quote by Scandal
You'll regret that :P

Yeah yeah yeah......... rolleyes

*yawn*
Venusxxx

30 Mar 2005

Quote by northwest-cpl
But what about the boys' school?

Haven`t the foggiest. You tell me. :P Probably belongs with the first example *oops*
Sad thing is, I knew once! redface

Venusxxx

30 Mar 2005

Hi Venus. I think I'm keeping up so far, but where I really need help is Gramma, and then verbs and adverbs.
Thank you for the help so far.
I will bring an apple tomorrow teacher. Do we have corporal punishment in this school? I may have to be disobiedient.
John
lol

30 Mar 2005

Quote by VenusnMars

But what about the boys' school?

Haven`t the foggiest. You tell me. :P Probably belongs with the first example *oops*
Sad thing is, I knew once! redface

Venusxxx
You can use Scandals Bhoy's to help there. lol

Isn't that the school belonging to the boys? dunno

I'm not the best in this area.....where's ES when I need him? He's my resident speller

30 Mar 2005

My mum uses the ` instead of the ' and it drives me mad. Especially as she uses it in the wrong place. Always.
rolleyes

I think I am going shopping, now. Need to get me some funny money.
Bollox. In which case, I'll go tomorrow, as it is nearly 1500 hrs.

30 Mar 2005

Granny Smiths please :mrgreen:
I'm glad it was helpful.
/glares evilly at all the piss-takers.
YOU can have the coporal punishment. THEY cannot! flipa

I'm off to slay my children on 'Hogs of War' now. :bounce:
Venusxxx

30 Mar 2005

I really do applaud Venus for doing this.
No sarcasm, no wit, just admiration.
Jags has tried this before too, I think, or has at least posted some of the more common mistakes.
I think the most guilty people won't even bother to look though confused

In the forum, as long as you can make yourself understood, you're ok without it being perfectly spelled or grammatically correct. The problems arise when people are just downright lazy; they then wonder why people get the wrong idea or why they don't get any response. When they then ask, they become defensive about their ability or lack thereof. Some resort to claiming they have dyslexia (but they manage to read all the posts?). Maybe some do, but there are ways around this. You have only to read Debbiewebs' posts to see that.
The use of the apostrophe is not easy to understand - possession is very awkward to explain/show. Maybe on here it doesn't matter (as long as you get the general gist of what someone's saying). Missing out a letter or letters is shown by using an apostrophe (contraction) but is often mistaken to indicate possession.
Their/they're/there and to/too/two are easy - can't understand why people get these wrong :?, sorry. Then again, on here it goes back to the general gist of the post being easy to read and understand.
I was always taught not to begin a sentence with 'and' or 'but', but now it's acceptable in schools - difficult for old timers like me biggrin

Text speak is something else entirely and should be used where it's supposed to be used - on a mobile telephone. That's only my opinion, though. Goes back to being easy to understand - many of us are in our 30's and 40's and because we aren't accustomed to the language, it's difficult for some of us to process.
Capitalisation, commas and full stops are desperately needed sometimes. Without them, a sentence often just doesn't make sense. Paragraphs are good to break up your writing into manageable segments. The 'acceptable' way is to put one point into one paragraph and so on. Just makes the whole piece of writing easier to read.
Basically then : spelling, punctuation and grammar are there to make writing easier to read and understand. Which comes right back to Venus' original post. It was difficult to read until she amended it.
Disclaimer:
This isn't meant to be sarcastic, pedantic or patronising to anyone and I apologise unreservedly if it somes across as such.

30 Mar 2005

Quote by rachel-lane
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht thefrist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos notraed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a *knig amzanig huh?

Yep, that's new to me Rachel-Lane, really cool that.
Here's something with apostrophes.
She had no food so she ate the dogs. This is a plural and means she consumed a canine.
She had no food so she ate the dog's. This is a possessive apostrophe and signifies that the food belonged to the dog, she consumed dog food.
HTH
Chris

30 Mar 2005

Quote by VenusnMars
....................Hi. My name is Venus, and I am a post whore.....................
Venusxxx

I always thought it should be....
Hi,my name is Venus and I am a post whore.
The comma or a full stop (or an exclamation mark. Thanks Fabio) are interchangeable in this sentance, but you should never have a comma and "and" next to each other.
That's the way I was taught anyway.
*awaits Ice Pies verdict on this matter* worship

30 Mar 2005

Very good, Venus. Most helpful ;)
Could you tell us where the apostrophe key is? The real one.
Oh, and could you also explain the use of the colon, semicolon, hash, dash and slash, and also the difference between single quotes and double quotes?
Also, when is the lower case i on its own acceptable?
And should numbers be written as words or figures?
Why is it frowned upon to boldly split an infinitive?
And why is a preposition something you shouldn't end a sentence on? ;)
Thanking you in advance for the benefit of your wisdom. :twisted:
Ice (bastard) xxx

30 Mar 2005

Quote by Ice Pie
Very good, Venus. Most helpful ;)
Could you tell us where the apostrophe key is? The real one.
Oh, and could you also explain the use of the colon, semicolon, hash, dash and slash, and also the difference between single quotes and double quotes?
Also, when is the lower case i on its own acceptable?
And should numbers be written as words or figures?
Why is it frowned upon to boldly split an infinitive.
And why is a preposition something you shouldn't end a sentence on? ;)
Thanking you in advance for the benefit of your wisdom. :twisted:
Ice (bastard) xxx

:shock: oooooo you're in bother when she reads that, Ice lol

30 Mar 2005

Quote by VenusnMars
I don't always get it right, but it doesn`t matter on a casual chat orientated board.
Venusxxx

Venus, I would hyphenate "chat-orientated".
Thank you,
mike.

30 Mar 2005

Quote by Ice Pie
Very good, Venus. Most helpful ;)
Could you tell us where the apostrophe key is? The real one.
Oh, and could you also explain the use of the colon, semicolon, hash, dash and slash, and also the difference between single quotes and double quotes?
Also, when is the lower case i on its own acceptable?
And should numbers be written as words or figures?
Why is it frowned upon to boldly split an infinitive?
And why is a preposition something you shouldn't end a sentence on? ;)
Thanking you in advance for the benefit of your wisdom. :twisted:
Ice (bastard) xxx

Lol, that should keep her quiet for a while! Hmm, actually, probably not, this is Venus after all!
Also, how can people possibly mix quite and quiet?

30 Mar 2005

Quote by MikeNorth

I don't always get it right, but it doesn`t matter on a casual chat orientated board.
Venusxxx

Venus, I would hyphenate "chat-orientated".
Thank you,
mike.
I'd use a capital M for your name, Mike lol

30 Mar 2005

Quote by MikeNorth

I don't always get it right, but it doesn`t matter on a casual chat orientated board.
Venusxxx

Venus, I would hyphenate "chat-orientated".
Thank you,
mike.
Thanks for bringing that one up, Mike. I would have said chat-oriented, not orientated.

30 Mar 2005

Quote by marmalaid
Also, how can people possibly mix quite and quiet?

Beats me; they are quite discrete, but I tend to be discreet when observing such errors. ;)

30 Mar 2005

Quote by Scandal
Also, how can people possibly mix quite and quiet?

I wondered how quite quiet people mix too. confused

I'm quite quiet, as you know, and I mix OK lol

30 Mar 2005

You go away for a few weeks to try and learn how to type and when you get back some buggers gone and made it that you also have to know how to spell and use grammar on the site! I might sod back off to Bristol !

30 Mar 2005

Quote by easy
....................Hi. My name is Venus, and I am a post whore.....................
Venusxxx

I always thought it should be....
Hi,my name is Venus and I am a post whore.
The comma or a full stop (or an exclamation mark. Thanks Fabio) are interchangeable in this sentance, but you should never have a comma and "and" next to each other.
That's the way I was taught anyway.
*awaits Ice Pies verdict on this matter* worship

Damn it Easy! You beat me to it! I was going to pull up Venus on that. Oh, well!
Like he says, the comma before the 'and' is unnecessary or superfluous as the 'and' acts as a sort of punctuation in itself. That's the way I think about it when I'm writing and I often mentally read back to myself what I have written, imagining how my sentences sound as if the were spoken.
You can punctuate with a comma before 'but' though, as in, "I went to the shops, but found they were closed".
LC

30 Mar 2005

Quote by Ice Pie
Beats me; they are quite discrete, but I tend to be discreet when observing such errors. ;)

Venus! Oi VENUS!!! Please could you explain Ice Pie's use of a semi-colon there?
(I'm really worried that I have used the apostrophe wrong and that there should be no hyphen in semi-colon, but I think it is correct)

30 Mar 2005

Quote by butters999999
...some buggers gone and made it...

Shouldn't that be some bugger's...?
bolt

30 Mar 2005

Quote by easy
...you should never have a comma and "and" next to each other.

There is at least one exception to this convention.
As you know, a list of names can be written, for example, either of the following ways:
Joe, Mary, David, Ethel, Bill and Janet, or Joe and Mary and David and Ethel and Bill and Janet. The second method is poor style but grammatically correct.
However, if the people are couples, they would be listed as Joe and Mary, David and Ethel, and Bill and Janet. In the preceding sentence, the comma before and is necessary to indicate that David and Ethel are connected, as are Bill and Janet. To have omitted the comma would imply that they are simply four people.
HTH ;)

30 Mar 2005

Quote by Ice Pie
...you should never have a comma and "and" next to each other.

There is at least one exception to this convention.
As you know, a list of names can be written, for example, either of the following ways:
Joe, Mary, David, Ethel, Bill and Janet, or Joe and Mary and David and Ethel and Bill and Janet. The second method is poor style but grammatically correct.
However, if the people are couples, they would be listed as Joe and Mary, David and Ethel, and Bill and Janet. In the preceding sentence, the comma before and is necessary to indicate that David and Ethel are connected, as are Bill and Janet. To have omitted the comma would imply that they are simply four people.
HTH ;)
So are they having a foursome/sixsome or what? :twisted:

30 Mar 2005

After reading this thread all I can say is, thank God for sub-editors and proof-readers :P

30 Mar 2005

Quote by Ice Pie
...some buggers gone and made it...

Shouldn't that be some bugger's...?
bolt

Ice I think your right but to be honest I couldn't care less lol I'd rather have the bugger!

30 Mar 2005

Quote by freckledbird
So are they having a foursome/sixsome or what? :twisted:

I think they're having a what. biggrin

30 Mar 2005

oooohhh,
Is it an orgy??????????
Can anyone join it???
:P

30 Mar 2005

Quote by Sarah1448
oooohhh,
Is it an orgy??????????
Can anyone join it???
:P

There's a queue, you know :twisted: