wikihow.com — Are you looking to write a great paper for one of your classes? Maybe you need to submit a polished, impeccable proposal to your boss? It can help to know the proper ways to use punctuation. Here is a helpful list of the most common punctuation and their uses. This list is more useful than your 6th grade English class.
Apr 4, 2007 View in Crawl 4
mdopureApr 5, 2007
I was actually taught in school to use apostrophes if the word is uncommon or an acronym. So DVD's, TV's, etc. I'm not saying it's absolutely correct, only that the whole subject is sometimes a matter of personal preference, and I think either way is fine.On another note, it seems like no one can agree on comma usage at the end of a list. For instance, I had one teacher instruct us to always use a comma before the last item ("bread, butter, and jam"), while another greatly preferred we didn't ("bread, butter and jam"). I prefer the former, since I think it's clearer.
gouldbr1Apr 5, 2007
English is a mixture of so many other languages that it is considered one of the hardest to master, even if it is one's first (and only) language. It's not too difficult to learn how to speak English - or at least "broken English" - but it's extremely hard to learn all the rules pertaining to syntax, sentence structure, punctuation, etc.
tizz66Apr 5, 2007
You should probably pick your battles more wisely... A title has capital letters for all words except 'to', 'and' and 'of'.
loopholeApr 6, 2007
actually, the following are both acceptable:Chris' houseChris's house<a class="user" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostrophe#Possessive_apostrophe">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostrophe#Possessive_apostrophe</a>
kronix2Apr 6, 2007
@nougat: "The contents of dictionaries do not define the landscape of a language. They reflect it."Unless you live in France, where the Academie francaise effectively regulates the language. <a class="user" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Académie_française">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Académie_française</a>
marv1983Apr 6, 2007
It makes no difference if American people punctuate correctly if they fail to spell English words correctly! It's just fundamental English language which should be taught in elementary school! Come on please you are killing our language!Here is a little extract from another persons opinion.You should look up "revocation" in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up "aluminium." Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'favour' and 'neighbour'; skipping the letter 'U' is nothing more than laziness on your part. Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters.You will end your love affair with the letter 'Z' (pronounced 'zed' not 'zee') and the suffix "ize" will be replaced by the suffix "ise."You will learn that the suffix 'burgh' is pronounced 'burra' e.g. Edinburgh. You are welcome to re-spell Pittsburgh as 'Pittsberg' if you can't cope with correct pronunciation.Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look up ?vocabulary." Using the same thirty seven words interspersed with filler noises such as "uhh", "like", and "you know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication.
jessejApr 6, 2007
Yeah? Can you explain me why?
Closed AccountApr 6, 2007
@kronix2 (#6023276)One more reason for the US to invade France.
elcaminosApr 8, 2007
Thanks discordian, I was always thinking of them as a type of parentheses and trying to read a sentence as if you could leave out what was in brackets, which never seems to work.
hindu_wardrobeApr 12, 2007
@notjamt9000It's aluminum and you know it!
sapphirephoenixFeb 21, 2008
o.o... You misspelled etiquette, by the way.