I have an excellent example this morning of what we do in Margie Rules. This is my $10-a-month subscription program. We offer a 10 percent discount on all my books and seminars; a live monthly session online for questions and discussion of English topics; and a dedicated FB page, where I answer questions and explain the grammar/punctuation that applies to …
“That Is…” and Others
This is an abbreviated version of what is in my book on these eight parentheticals. PARENTHETICAL TO INTRODUCE AN APPOSITIVE Sometimes, when a person wants to explain, reiterate, rename, or restate something — that is, he wants to use an appositive — he uses a parenthetical before the appositive. These are the expressions most commonly used as parentheticals before an …
More on the Word “So” — Even If We Don’t Even Want to Go There Again
Facebook had a couple of interesting questions/examples on “so.” SO I thought it would be good to take a look at them. This is my answer to the questions about the word “so” in the FB sentence below. …If, after a question has been posed to you, you have any question relating to what is being inquired about, please tell …
A Different Meaning for the Period or Semicolon Before “Is That Correct?”
Deciding to use a period versus a semicolon before “Is that correct?” and expecting your reader to distinguish that they mean something different is an exercise in extreme subtlety. This distinction has been pushed around out there for a long time. …You testified that he arrived at 9:00; is that correct? — meaning is it correct that you testified to this? …You testified that he …
Dependent Clauses
This is an email question from yesterday. ……Okay. Now, you told us, Ms. Ryan — right? — at one point you got up [, or ;] you left the room [, or ;] and you went to the bathroom. Is that right? Amid all the other punctuation issues, the question is do we need semicolons or commas between the three …
The Word “So”
When the word so means “therefore,” it starts a new sentence and takes a semicolon or period in front of it and no single comma after it because it is only one syllable. …We left early; so I missed his phone call. …The company had already fired him; so there was nothing I could do to help. …The blue car …
Oops!! Yikes!! Checking Yesterday’s Blog
Thank you; thank you to the person that caught this in yesterday’s blog. It said Generally there is a comma before a conjunctive adverb. When it has more than one syllable, it has a comma after it; when there is only syllable, there is no comma. Of course, it does not have a comma before it. It starts a new …
The Adverb That Gets Bumped up to Conjunction
Sometimes an adverb gets pulled out to the beginning of a sentence to form a “bridge” to the sentence before it. It becomes a linking word for the two sentences and shows a relationship between the two sentences. This is called a conjunctive adverb. Some examples are however, moreover, nevertheless, therefore, still, thus, yet, then Generally there is a comma …
Parallel Construction and the Semicolon
…I arrived on Saturday; he arrived on Sunday. …He resigned in 2010; she resigned in 2011. …The first train leaves at 5:00 A.M.; the last train leaves at 10:00 P.M. The Rule: When two sentences have NO conjunction between them and have parallel grammatical construction, use a semicolon between them. This question always arises: Could I use a period? My …
The Compound Sentence
I am going to start this topic today and will keep coming back to it over the next weeks. The question is what to do with an element that begins a second sentence after an and or but (or, nor). One of the basic reasons to have punctuation is to sort out the structure of the sentence. Cardinal Rule No. …
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