English lesson please.

[Gritt23]

I will often throw a colon or a semicolon into my writing, but I have no idea when they really should be used, or indeed where you would use one rather than the other.

It something I'm sure I did know once, but sadly the old grey matter isn't what it used to be.

Anyone know?

 

[nail-Z]

Erm:-

No.

 

[Deano's Right Foot]

I NEVER got taught grammar at school - I am part of a lost grammatical generation.

But this is what I think:

1) Colon's are used to precede a list;
2) Semi-colon's are used to separate items in a list.

There may be other uses for colons also.

 

[Trufflehound]

Colons for smiling

Semi-colons for winking knowingly ;-)

Don't they teach people anything these days... ?

 

[Perry's Tracksuit Bottoms]

I NEVER got taught grammar at school - I am part of a lost grammatical generation.

But this is what I think:

1) Colon's are used to precede a list;
2) Semi-colon's are used to separate items in a list.

There may be other uses for colons also.

And you DON'T use apostrophes for plurals!

 

[Everest]

And you DON'T use apostrophes for a plurals!

You weren't quick enough

 

[Perry's Tracksuit Bottoms]

bugger

 

[Gritt23]

And you DON'T use apostrophes for plurals!

Someone's a little tired this morning.

I was always taught that you shouldn't start a sentence with "And". There are exceptions, but your sentence wasn't one of them. As for your use of capital letters; that seems incorrect as well.

 

[Curious Orange]

And you DON'T use apostrophes for plurals!

... unless you are relating something as belonging to a plural, then you do s' - The sisters' children played in the garden, or the parents' child played in the garden...

And here is a nice link to semicolon usage.

http://www.gcse.com/english/semicolon_use.htm

 

[Perry's Tracksuit Bottoms]

Someone's a little tired this morning.

Not at all - maybe I should have used one of these .

I was always taught that you shouldn't start a sentence with "And". There are exceptions, but your sentence wasn't one of them. As for your use of capital letters; that seems incorrect as well.

You're quite right, of course. Please feel free to replace my 'And' with an '...and'.

 

[Silent Bob]

:-

 

[Gritt23]

... unless you are relating something as belonging to a plural, then you do s' - The sisters' children played in the garden, or the parents' child played in the garden...

And here is a nice link to semicolon usage.

http://www.gcse.com/english/semicolon_use.htm

 

[Woodchip]

Someone's a little tired this morning.

I was always taught that you shouldn't start a sentence with "And". There are exceptions, but your sentence wasn't one of them. As for your use of capital letters; that seems incorrect as well.

However, plain english is now being trained out so that sentences may start with "joining words". Also sentences should be no more that 30 words, and lots of other silly rules like that.

 

[Deano's Right Foot]

And you DON'T use apostrophes for plurals!

I knew that - I'm just exhausted and ym brain isn;t working properly...

 

[Hiney]

Semi Colon

Colon

 

[pasty]

Don't they teach people anything these days... ?

Nope. At the last parents evening, Mrs. P was speaking with her 14 year old daughters English teacher. Her teacher was enthusing how well she had grasped Shakespeare, how eloquently she can discuss the finer points of poetry, and that she was a very enthusiastic and active member of the class.

Mrs. P then brought up the subject that her handwriting and spelling were atrocious and the teacher replied "Oh we don't worry about that too much these days"