Posts Tagged ‘grammar’
It seems that Italy too has got problems with spelling and punctuation, though in this case at graffiti rather than local authority level. The text in black above should read “L’orgoglio non serve”. Roughly translated, “Pride doesn’t serve any purpose”, to which an Italian Lynne Truss has responded “But apostrophes do”. This picture is from a […]
Filed under: Italian, Language | 2 Comments
Tags: graffiti, grammar, Italian, Language, punctuation, Spelling
My post on Tuesday (26 October) was about how to type an ellipsis; this one goes into a wee bit more detail about when you should do so. I’ve lifted the following straight from Wikipedia, mainly to save time but also because I love the following phrase: “the ellipsis can also inspire a feeling of […]
Filed under: Language, Writing | 4 Comments
Tags: ellipsis, grammar, Language, punctuation, typography, Writing
Fascinating comma fact 1 A comma is not just a punctuation mark, it’s also a type of butterfly, so-named because of the white comma-shaped marking on the underside of its wing (you can just about see it in the photo). UK Butterflies (which provides more detailed photos) describes the Comma as looking like a “tatty […]
Filed under: English, Italian, Language | Leave a Comment
Tags: butterflies, Chicago Manual of Style, commas, English, etymology, grammar, Italian, Language, punctuation
To those of you still fretting over the Oxford Comma dilemma (and who don’t read the Comments – tsk, tsk!), the “august journal” Speculative Grammarian offers the following solution: Since the OC appears to present more problems of CrossPondian translation than any other form of punctuation, a solution must be found which satisfies users on both […]
Filed under: English, Language, Writing | Leave a Comment
Tags: English, grammar, Language, oxford comma, punctuation, serial comma, UK English, US English, Writing
Do you use the Oxford (serial) comma? Here’s a sentence with the Oxford comma: My favourite foods are Greek yoghurt, salted almonds, cheese, and dark chocolate. Here’s the same sentence without: My favourite foods are Greek yoghurt, salted almonds, cheese and dark chocolate. And here’s one where, unless you change the order of the list […]
Filed under: English, Language, Writing | 7 Comments
Tags: English, grammar, Language, oxford comma, polls, punctuation, serial comma, Writing
Words to good effect 