Punctuation

[nightrider]

RupertGS - 2009-08-29 10:25 AM

knight of the road - 2009-08-28 9:18 PM i went out to work today and got soaking wet came back home and lit the woodburner in my workshop with a pot of coffee bubbling away and then set to work no capitals fullstops or anything can you understand what i am writing

yesterday I went to the birmingham post office

There's a sentence with no punctuation. Perhaps you'd like to hazard a guess at what I did and why I went to that place?

Rupert,From that I can only deduce that you went to a post office in Birmingham.I imagine that if you are a purist and adept at using words, you can play with them to make them something completely different from what the minds eye see's.

[nightrider]

I suppose ones writing depends on what job you do, if you work in an office perhaps sending out invoices to your customers, you're a civil servant, work in a bank or in the legal or medical profession a high degree of literacy is required.

But if you work in some kind of office job you have to be wary of not descending into gobbledegook so loved by officials who use big words where a smaller simple word would serve just as well.

I don't know what standard that my writing is at, that is for others to judge but as long as I get my message across I am happy, as long as when I leave a note in my customers letterbox saying, 'Did your garden today Mrs Smith can you please send your cheque for £20 to my home address payable (to me) and not to my company name or the bank will want to charge me for paying it in'

I agree with Rupert that todays educational standards are appalling and if I was a teacher I would be ashamed to death if my pupils on leaving school could hardly read or write.

Forums such as Facebook and mobile phone texting have a lot to answer for in my opinion.

[dethleff]

RupertGS - 2009-08-29 2:14 PM

Basil - 2009-08-29 11:34 AM

RupertGS - 2009-08-28 5:23 PM Many people will write: "Last week I and some friends bought some Euro's." What makes them write 'friends', which is just the plural of 'friend', without the apostrophe, which is correct by the way, but then, when writing Euros, which is simply the plural of 'Euro' they put in a superfluous apostrophe?

As I said, this is not a criticism of anyone, I'm just really interested to know what motivates people to add apostrophes to some words that are simply plural and have no possession (as in the Euro's value).

Not wishing to be pedantic but the plural of Euro is Euro not Euro's, Euros or any other combination! :-D Bas

Well done! As soon as I posted that thread I knew that someone would come up with that one! Euro is, as you say, a mass noun, just like sterling, but I used it because it's the one where everyone slaps in an apostrophe. I'm beginning to think that people believe that if a word has fewer than four letters it must have an apostrophe! There's no other explanation that I can think of anyway.

Well done, I knew you would spot that I had left the question mark out deliberately.

[ROON]

My biggest problem comes when I have to choose between Me and I. I can understand which to use when I say 'My mother and I are going to the market.' But then there are occasions when it appears that 'I' is used when it should be 'me' ....... if you know what I mean!!!!! :$ :$

 

Sorry. :$ Was just joining in. (I know too I shouldn't have started a sentence with 'But', but it is done in novels now and .... oh, dear. Anyone for a cuppa?)

[malc d]

ROON - 2009-08-29 5:37 PM

 

My biggest problem comes when I have to choose between Me and I. I can understand which to use when I say 'My mother and I are going to the market.' But then there are occasions when it appears that 'I' is used when it should be 'me' ....... if you know what I mean!!!!! :$ :$

 

Sorry. :$ Was just joining in. (I know too I shouldn't have started a sentence with 'But', but it is done in novels now and .... oh, dear. Anyone for a cuppa?)

 

 

No need to worry Joy.

 

Even the Queen has a problem with "ME" and "I".

 

So she just calls herself "ONE"

 

 

 

 

;-)

[nowtelse2do]

RupertGS - 2009-08-29 10:25 AM

knight of the road - 2009-08-28 9:18 PM i went out to work today and got soaking wet came back home and lit the woodburner in my workshop with a pot of coffee bubbling away and then set to work no capitals fullstops or anything can you understand what i am writing

yesterday I went to the birmingham post office

There's a sentence with no punctuation. Perhaps you'd like to hazard a guess at what I did and why I went to that place?

  Was it to send money back home to Pakistan?:-D

Dave

[nightrider]

nowtelse2do - 2009-08-30 9:30 AM

RupertGS - 2009-08-29 10:25 AM

knight of the road - 2009-08-28 9:18 PM i went out to work today and got soaking wet came back home and lit the woodburner in my workshop with a pot of coffee bubbling away and then set to work no capitals fullstops or anything can you understand what i am writing

yesterday I went to the birmingham post office

There's a sentence with no punctuation. Perhaps you'd like to hazard a guess at what I did and why I went to that place?

  Was it to send money back home to Pakistan?:-D

Dave

If I were to have sent in a post like that I would have been jumped on from a great height and be accused of racism *-)

[nowtelse2do]

Malcolm

That's because you are not the flavour of the month with Rupert. Did not put x after your name because i weren't sure if it meant a kiss (I know what you Bury folk are like after a couple of Black Puddings):-D

Dave

 

[nightrider]

nowtelse2do - 2009-08-30 3:42 PM

Malcolm

That's because you are not the flavour of the month with Rupert. Did not put x after your name because i weren't sure if it meant a kiss (I know what you Bury folk are like after a couple of Black Puddings):-D

Dave

 

Dave,There are times when I have sampled a steaming black pudding on Bury market, can't say that I am over keen on them, think its an acquired taste like Holts bitter.I was up the valley last week at a garden wholesalers where I buy quite a bit of gear and do Burnley auctions every 3 weeks, bought some good stuff from there.Every now and again I put a post up and WW3 breaks out, have you ever visited the C&CC club site at Clitheroe? or is it too near home for you, we go there regularly for a long weekend using up our camping miles which gives us a weekends break for nowt.

[duffers]

ROON - 2009-08-29 5:37 PM

 

My biggest problem comes when I have to choose between Me and I. I can understand which to use when I say 'My mother and I are going to the market.' But then there are occasions when it appears that 'I' is used when it should be 'me' ....... if you know what I mean!!!!! :$ :$

 

Sorry. :$ Was just joining in. (I know too I shouldn't have started a sentence with 'But', but it is done in novels now and .... oh, dear. Anyone for a cuppa?)

 

Easiest way that I've found is to take out the other person, and see whether I or Me is more appropriate.

So if you'd said 'my mother and me are going. . . ' removed my mother, would you be happy with 'me am going. . . .' or does 'I am going. . . .' sound right.

 

That's the beauty of the French 'On' which is presumable where the 'one' comes from - 'On' nice simple 3rd person singular - dead easy to use, covers any number of of people from 1 to lots, regardless of gender - great n'est-ce pas???? :D

 

 

[duffers]

and now do we boldly go to the split infinitive debate :D >:-) >:-)

[RupertGS]

knight of the road - 2009-08-29 4:17 PM

RupertGS - 2009-08-29 10:25 AM

knight of the road - 2009-08-28 9:18 PM i went out to work today and got soaking wet came back home and lit the woodburner in my workshop with a pot of coffee bubbling away and then set to work no capitals fullstops or anything can you understand what i am writing

yesterday I went to the birmingham post office

There's a sentence with no punctuation. Perhaps you'd like to hazard a guess at what I did and why I went to that place?

Rupert, From that I can only deduce that you went to a post office in Birmingham. I imagine that if you are a purist and adept at using words, you can play with them to make them something completely different from what the minds eye see's.

I wasn't trying to trick you but simply to show you that punctuation is important. I shall now write the same sentence with the correct punctuation:

Yesterday, I went to the 'Birmingham Post' office.

Now where do you think I went?

[RupertGS]

dethleff - 2009-08-29 5:20 PM

RupertGS - 2009-08-29 2:14 PM

Basil - 2009-08-29 11:34 AM

RupertGS - 2009-08-28 5:23 PM Many people will write: "Last week I and some friends bought some Euro's." What makes them write 'friends', which is just the plural of 'friend', without the apostrophe, which is correct by the way, but then, when writing Euros, which is simply the plural of 'Euro' they put in a superfluous apostrophe?

As I said, this is not a criticism of anyone, I'm just really interested to know what motivates people to add apostrophes to some words that are simply plural and have no possession (as in the Euro's value).

Not wishing to be pedantic but the plural of Euro is Euro not Euro's, Euros or any other combination! :-D Bas

Well done! As soon as I posted that thread I knew that someone would come up with that one! Euro is, as you say, a mass noun, just like sterling, but I used it because it's the one where everyone slaps in an apostrophe. I'm beginning to think that people believe that if a word has fewer than four letters it must have an apostrophe! There's no other explanation that I can think of anyway.

Well done, I knew you would spot that I had left the question mark out deliberately.

Yes, of course you did old chap! No one doubts you for a second.

[RupertGS]

duffers - 2009-08-30 4:59 PM

ROON - 2009-08-29 5:37 PM My biggest problem comes when I have to choose between Me and I. I can understand which to use when I say 'My mother and I are going to the market.' But then there are occasions when it appears that 'I' is used when it should be 'me' ....... if you know what I mean!!!!! :$ :$ Sorry. :$ Was just joining in. (I know too I shouldn't have started a sentence with 'But', but it is done in novels now and .... oh, dear. Anyone for a cuppa?)

Easiest way that I've found is to take out the other person, and see whether I or Me is more appropriate. So if you'd said 'my mother and me are going. . . ' removed my mother, would you be happy with 'me am going. . . .' or does 'I am going. . . .' sound right. That's the beauty of the French 'On' which is presumable where the 'one' comes from - 'On' nice simple 3rd person singular - dead easy to use, covers any number of of people from 1 to lots, regardless of gender - great n'est-ce pas???? :D

Or to put it even more simpler, remember this: pronouns do not change because there is more than one.

If 100 people were asked to choose the correct sentence from the following three, they would probably put the correct one last.

"Thank you for inviting my wife and I to dinner."

"Thank you for inviting my wife and myself to dinner."

"Thank you for inviting my wife and me to dinner."

The correct one is the last one. You wouldn't say:

"Thank you for inviting I to dinner." or

"Thank you for inviting myself to dinner."

just because you've added another pronoun in the shape of your wife does not mean that the other one changes.

Another very common mistake is the use of the 'self' pronouns, which I'm sure is done because some think that using a longer word makes them seem more clever, when it just proves the opposite.

"Please phone myself tomorrow." is nonsense. It's "Please phone me tomorrow."

Myself, yourself etc. are called emphatic or reflexive pronouns because they should be used simply to emphasise the main pronoun, as in: I myself wasn't interested."

I had a phone message the other day from some chap who said: "I'm ringing yourself about xxxxxxx and I'd be grateful if you ring myself at the first opportunity."

Grrrrrr! Proper English is: "I'm ringing you about xxxxxxx and I'd be grateful if you ring me at the first opportunity."

I'll get off my soapbox now!

[nightrider]

Regarding correct punctuation, spelling and grammar. In the dim distant past I seem to remember reading about someone who was sent to the gallows because of a mistake made in a legal document, not sure but I thing it was Roger Casement, but I will stand corrected if I am wrong.