Grammar
- Thread starter wehstar
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M's girl
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; (semi colon)
This is to show 'coherence' in a sentence, as in
To show the two parts of a sentence are connected, as in
This symbol is sort of an in between symbol of the dot and the , (don't know the proper word in English
)
The : (colon) symbol is used to indicate the following is a quote, as in
or to show an explanation, discription or conclusion is going to follow, as in
the third main usage is when a list is following, as in
This is to separate an in between sentence from the rest of the sentence, as in
It also can be used instead of the , or (...) symbols and is prefered as it reads easier, as in
OK, this is the simple explanation, and basically from Dutch grammar-style, though I think it doesn't differ from how they are used in the English language and grammar. Correct me if I'm wrong..
This is to show 'coherence' in a sentence, as in
Tomorrow it's my brother's birthday; all his friends are invited
or
To show the two parts of a sentence are connected, as in
He did his very best; still he failed
This symbol is sort of an in between symbol of the dot and the , (don't know the proper word in English
)The : (colon) symbol is used to indicate the following is a quote, as in
"He said: I want to do that again",
or to show an explanation, discription or conclusion is going to follow, as in
"Angela can't attend: she is sick",
the third main usage is when a list is following, as in
"All kinds of items were sold: chairs, tables, rugs etcetera".
- (hyphen)
This is to separate an in between sentence from the rest of the sentence, as in
"We would like to draw your attention to the fact - as we indicated before - that there's still iems on the list missing".
It also can be used instead of the , or (...) symbols and is prefered as it reads easier, as in
"The supplier wrote to us - based on what anyway? - that we had to send the goods back"
OK, this is the simple explanation, and basically from Dutch grammar-style, though I think it doesn't differ from how they are used in the English language and grammar. Correct me if I'm wrong..
PowerLifter84
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I agree with the above post but with the sentence "Angela can't attend: she is sick", wouldn't it make more sense saying "Angela cannot attend -- she's sick"?
Use of hyphen
If you really want to get technical, a hyphen has two specific uses:
–to hypenate two words that will be used as one. Examples: An anal-retentive attitude, a seven-year-old child
–and to divide a word that is too long to fit at the end of a line. Generally, words are divided between two consonants, such as bar -baric, atten -tion, or after a vowel and before a consonant, such as atti - tude, posi -tive
Then there's a dash. Two of them. An en dash and an em dash. The en dash is the length of the width of an "n" and the em dash is the length of the width of an "m." The en dash is used between numbers such as 10–20. An em dash is often used for emphasis on a particular part of the sentence, such as "He is intelligent—a fact that I admire—and kind. You could also use commas or parentheses. Commas drawing less attention, parentheses drawing more. Some people use en dashes instead of em dashes and in less than the most formal writing, that's okay.
Semi-colons are used between complete sentences that are closely related and in lists where a comma is already in use, such as Orlando, Florida; Washington, D.C. and New York City.
Colons are often used before a list of some sort, as above in the beginning of this post.
I use a Mac so to create an en dash I press the option key and the hypen key at the top. For am em dash it's the option + shift + plus hypen key. I can't visualize a PC keyboard so someone will have to help on this.
If you really want to get technical, a hyphen has two specific uses:
–to hypenate two words that will be used as one. Examples: An anal-retentive attitude, a seven-year-old child
–and to divide a word that is too long to fit at the end of a line. Generally, words are divided between two consonants, such as bar -baric, atten -tion, or after a vowel and before a consonant, such as atti - tude, posi -tive
Then there's a dash. Two of them. An en dash and an em dash. The en dash is the length of the width of an "n" and the em dash is the length of the width of an "m." The en dash is used between numbers such as 10–20. An em dash is often used for emphasis on a particular part of the sentence, such as "He is intelligent—a fact that I admire—and kind. You could also use commas or parentheses. Commas drawing less attention, parentheses drawing more. Some people use en dashes instead of em dashes and in less than the most formal writing, that's okay.
Semi-colons are used between complete sentences that are closely related and in lists where a comma is already in use, such as Orlando, Florida; Washington, D.C. and New York City.
Colons are often used before a list of some sort, as above in the beginning of this post.
I use a Mac so to create an en dash I press the option key and the hypen key at the top. For am em dash it's the option + shift + plus hypen key. I can't visualize a PC keyboard so someone will have to help on this.
wehstar
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OK thank you to the people who have helped. I didn't even think that Lit might have set aside guides. When I was at school I was put in the top section for English and the bottom section for Mathematics. I was taken out of English to do remedial Mathematics (if just doing more sums the same way and getting 50 sums wrong instead of 25 wrong can be seen as remedial work), then when I got put in top level English in bigger school grammar was never studied nor tested as it would be considered remedial, though I didn't have a clue. Perhaps it is time to rectify this situation!
Oh and
Oh and
if I understand correctly - This symbol is sort of an in between symbol of the full stop and the commaM's girl said:This symbol is sort of an in between symbol of the dot and the , (don't know the proper word in English
Eilan
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No, you wouldn't use a dash there. Dashes are generally used to emphasize a point or set off a comment/text from the rest of a sentence.PowerLifter84 said:
Frankly, I'd probably just rewrite the sentence to say, "Angela can't attend because she is sick" because I think it "flows" better.
Weird Harold
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kc1224 said:
The only time I don't use a double hyphen for an Em-dash is in MS Word where typing a double Hypen is automatically corrected to a Em-dash.
Weird Harold
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wehstar said:
A good source for these kinds of Questions is Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL) or any of hundreds of other university OWLs and "Writing Centers" that turn up on a Goolge search for the terms "Online Writing Lab" or "Writing Center"
tanyachrs
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Punctuation is both a science and an art. It's not possible to know whether a colon, semi-colon, or dash is most appropriate without knowing the author's intent. There are times when one or the other is wrong (e.g. you must have a complete sentence on both sides of a semi-colon) but in most cases there's more than one right answer.
The example given could also be handled with a period or parenthesis. It depends what part of the sentence was important and how important you wanted to make it.
Angela cannot attend: she's sick. (emphasis on sick)
Angela cannot attend; she's sick. (no emphasis)
Angela cannot attend. She's sick. (emphasis on both)
Angela cannot attend (she's sick). (emphasis on cannot attend)
Don't think I'd use a dash for that one unless there was another part of the sentence, e.g.:
Angela cannot attend -- she's sick -- so we'll have to do without her. (more emphasis on sick than with the parenthesis but it's still an aside).
The example given could also be handled with a period or parenthesis. It depends what part of the sentence was important and how important you wanted to make it.
Angela cannot attend: she's sick. (emphasis on sick)
Angela cannot attend; she's sick. (no emphasis)
Angela cannot attend. She's sick. (emphasis on both)
Angela cannot attend (she's sick). (emphasis on cannot attend)
Don't think I'd use a dash for that one unless there was another part of the sentence, e.g.:
Angela cannot attend -- she's sick -- so we'll have to do without her. (more emphasis on sick than with the parenthesis but it's still an aside).
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