The comma rules

17.05.2010

In a world without punctuation, more accidents might happen.

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For its centennial in 2008, the Brazilian Press Association (ABI) made this video showing the damage a misplaced comma can do.

Lynne Truss in 2003 had proclaimed the "zero-tolerance approach to punctuation", presenting funny misplaced commas, such as the case of the panda who "eats, shoots and leaves" (instead of sticking to a healthy diet of shoots and leaves), and the sign warning "slow children crossing".

Corrupt judges, gangster pandas and slow children are just three sorry examples of what happens when the comma gets no respect. Eat, Pray, Love, starring Julia Roberts and expected to be this summer's Hollywood blockbuster, is yet another. The original book title by Elizabeth Gilbert included commas, but the cover illustrator decided they weren't decorative enough. Taking their cue from the cover, the film producers have dropped the commas entirely. So what does the title mean now? What are we supposed to be eating, darling? Eat prey, love!

Don't, wait! Elizabeth Gilbert showed us the essentials of living well by taking us round the world, and in the quiz on the next page we're going to show you the essentials of using commas well by taking you up a mountain. Don't wait!

Anne Hodgson

* This week's exercise is available as a download to print out:
The comma rules

Spotlight 3/2010 contains the free booklet Punctuation Today. To order past issues of Spotlight, write to abo@spotlight-verlag.de

100-jähriges Jubiläum

falsch platzieren

keine Toleranz kleinen Vergehen gegenüber

Zeichensetzung

Sprossen

beklagenswert

sich orientieren an

weglassen

Beutetiere

COMMENTS

Submitted by Delku on Wed, 26/05/2010 - 17:08.

Dear Anne,
In the exercise above I find
"The hostel we stayed at had a lovely breakfast buffet. We had a choice between
fresh rolls, croissants, ham and eggs, bacon and eggs, and muesli."

I would have expected "among" rather than "between" as there are more than two things mentioned to choose from.
Perhaps there isn't any difference anymore as Paul Smith used "... you can choose between Mark Twain, G.K.Chesterton and Lord Byron." in spotlight 3/10.
Can you help me?

k_west@ewetel.net

Kind regards

Submitted by Anne Hodgson on Sat, 05/06/2010 - 10:01.

Hi K,

Another excellent question, thank you. 'Between' can be used whenever there are several options, so it's not limited to two. In this case, therefore, both would be possible. But 'between' is used to make a distinction or contrast, which is not possible with 'among'. So to 'choose between' focusses on having to take (only) one of them. To 'choose among' focusses more on the group as a whole.

By contrast, 'among' is used to describe one or several in a group of more than two: Examples: Among the group were several people who... I found a great book among the books on sale on that table over there. Among my happiest memories are the summers when... Reggae is among the kinds of music that have crossed over... I found my friend Josephine among the bystanders.