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15.08.2008, 13:43 quote

rocketgirl

Notice the effect of the following Dear John love letter with different punctuation:

Dear John
I want a man who knows what love is all about.
You are generous, kind, thoughtful.
People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior.
You have ruined me for other men.
I yearn for you.
I have no feelings whatsoever when we're apart.
I can be forever happy - will you let me be yours?

Gloria


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear John
I want a man who knows what love is.
All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you.
Admit to being useless and inferior.
You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn.
For you, I have no feelings whatsoever.
When we're apart, I can be forever happy.
Will you let me be?

Yours,
Gloria

 

15.08.2008, 18:17 quote

choochi0
choochi0 Joined: 13 May 2008 Posts: 5482 Location: United Kingdom, England, Sussex
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rocketgirl wrote:
Neither. The comma would suffice I think? A colon or period full stop would mean that the second bit "His head in the air." would not be a viable sentence, standing alone.
(God, I feel like I'm back in school!)


My mistake. I intended to write comma not colon, but I have lost the ability to communicate concisely since we started a new shift pattern at work that is killing us all slowly and painfully.

Soon enough I will be writing complete and utter nonsense other than the just about decipherable nonsense that I spew out at the moment.

Or I'll be dead.

 

15.08.2008, 21:42 quote

ykwsg

rocketgirl wrote:
Ok, so where's the semicolon?

Ah, sorry. Wasn't being very clear. The two sentences were nothing to do with the semicolon; they were just examples I remembered from Lynne Truss' radio series about the effects of punctuation. By the way, I love that Dear John business! I think the semicolon appeared somewhere (unspecified) in a letter to an objectionable penfriend who had a "light dusting of freckles".

 

17.09.2008, 15:17 quote

redelicious
redelicious Joined: 19 Feb 2008 Posts: 1609 Location: United Kingdom, England, Lincolnshire
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titwhipper wrote:
This is not a txt speak complaint thread.

Ido my best to not start every sentance with the letter I. I find it egotistical, not single minded. I also find most I writers are me me me.But I could be wrong.

I can not do anything about it, it is just a gripe.
__________________________________________________


This thread in an attempt to discuss the use of ones literary skills. I have read many statements, letters, sites, not FB in particular just in general. What I have noticed mostly is the basic level of grammer is failing. Is everybody gone a bit thick or just plain lazy? Where have the imagination triggers gone?

To start:

and;but;

Am I correct in thinking these two examples are not to be used at the begining of any sentance?

A boring question but one I feel has its own importance.


Not to pick, one is above such behaviour, but if you're going to bring up lack of proper grammer, should not one's own grammar/ability to spell also come into it? Perhaps you ought to proof read your postings first Confused

And there are occasions when it is correct to start a sentence with 'And' or 'But'. You have done so yourself.
_________________
"Always look on the bright side of life..... tetum tetumtetumtetum....."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHPOzQzk9Qo

 

29.09.2008, 11:56 quote

titwhipper

I take it you already know
of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you,
on hiccough, thorough, laugh and through.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
to learn of less familiar traps?

Beware of heard, a dreadful word,
that looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead -- it's said like bed not bead --
and for goodness' sake don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt)

A moth is not the moth in mother,
nor both in bother, broth in brother.
And here is not a match for there,
nor dear and fear for bear and pear.
And then there's dose and rose and lose --
just look them up -- and goose and choose,
and cork and work and card and ward,
and font and front and word and sword,
and do and go and thwart and cart --
come, come I've hardly made a start.
A dreadful language? Man alive.
I'd mastered it when I was five.

 

29.09.2008, 13:15 quote

choochi0
choochi0 Joined: 13 May 2008 Posts: 5482 Location: United Kingdom, England, Sussex
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Put a tune to it and skip down the street singing. No-one will think you are mad at all.

 

29.09.2008, 21:20 quote

rocketgirl

Yes English is indeed a crazy language!
Love the poem, copied it and sent it to all and sundry by email for a laugh!

 

01.10.2008, 08:00 quote

redelicious
redelicious Joined: 19 Feb 2008 Posts: 1609 Location: United Kingdom, England, Lincolnshire
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titwhipper wrote:
I take it you already know
of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you,
on hiccough, thorough, laugh and through.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
to learn of less familiar traps?

Beware of heard, a dreadful word,
that looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead -- it's said like bed not bead --
and for goodness' sake don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt)

A moth is not the moth in mother,
nor both in bother, broth in brother.
And here is not a match for there,
nor dear and fear for bear and pear.
And then there's dose and rose and lose --
just look them up -- and goose and choose,
and cork and work and card and ward,
and font and front and word and sword,
and do and go and thwart and cart --
come, come I've hardly made a start.
A dreadful language? Man alive.
I'd mastered it when I was five.


Excellent stuff TW. Our language truly is 'de pits' Wink
_________________
"Always look on the bright side of life..... tetum tetumtetumtetum....."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHPOzQzk9Qo

 

23.10.2008, 22:55 quote

titwhipper

In English, a double negative forms a positive.
In some languages like Russian a double negative is still a negative.
However, there is no language wherein a double positive can form a negative.


yeah, right.

 

16.04.2009, 21:20 quote

whysoserious1983
whysoserious1983 Joined: 31 Mar 2009 Posts: 1825 Location: United Kingdom, England, Essex
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English is a beautiful language, I love it above all else. I really wish that people would use it properly again. Unfortunately I fear that with modern life, and text messages in particular, we're seeing it dying.

Going back to the beginning of the thread, I completely disagree that sentences should not be started with "and" and "but." Maybe it was once considered bad form, but with language, comes change. Unfortunately mostly, recently, it's been for the worse.

 

19.04.2009, 12:53 quote

nata1ie

There is a certain level of irony in the fact the person whom initially had this gripe, has incorrectly orthographically constructed the word 'grammar'.

 

20.04.2009, 19:59 quote

handsel
handsel Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 1227 Location: United Kingdom, England, West Midlands
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nata1ie wrote:
There is a certain level of irony in the fact the person whom initially had this gripe, has incorrectly orthographically constructed the word 'grammar'.


Should that be 'who' or 'whom'? Confused
I'd go for 'who'.

Did you mean the original poster misspelt 'grammar'?
Is that what your 'incorrectly orthographically constructed' means?

 

17.05.2009, 13:34 quote

justjohn1985
Joined: 27 Apr 2009 Posts: 2 Location: United Kingdom, England, London
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Unfortunately I once opened bottle of coke and it fizzed and erupted over my keyboard on my laptop. Since then my at and apostrope keys dont work. So I have to type cant and its lol. Havent got much choice unless I copy and paste which seems quite a hassle. In General though gramatical "errors" dont(theres anoter one Razz) bother me. I like to try and make things make sense at least I hope so ha ha.

 
 
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