Punctuation ❣️

“There never was a golden age in which the rules for the possessive apostrophe were clear-cut and known, understood and followed by most educated people.” PUNCTUATION APOSTROPHE The English language first picked up the apostrophe in the 16th century. The word in Greek means "turning away", and hence "omission" or "elision". In classical texts, it was used to mark dropped letters. At some point in the 17th century, however, printers started to intrude an apostrophe before the “s” in singular possessive cases (possessive “its” was originally formed with an apostrophe in the 17th century, but it had been dropped by the early 19th century, presumably to make it more similar to the other personal pronoun possessives). In the 18th century, printers started to put it after plural possessives as well (“my students’ success”). So what are the jobs an apostrophe currently has on its CV? Let’s name all the essential tasks the apostrophe is obliged to execute every day one by one. 1. a possessive in a singular noun: The teacher’s work When the owner is a plural noun that does not end in an “s”, the apostrophe similarly precedes the “s”: The children’s tests Women’s rights But if the possessor is a regular plural, the apostrophe follows the “s”: Teachers’ work deserves admiration. That goes without saying. 2  time or quantity: in one year’s time three days’ notice a dollar’s worth of change 3  the omission of figures in dates: Mary was born in June of ’86. 4 It indicates the omission of letters: We can’t go there tonight, I s’pose. 5 strange, non-standard English: “I mean as ‘appen Ah can find anuther pleece as’ll du for rearin’ th’ pheasants. If yer want ter be ‘ere, yo’ll non want me messin’ abaht a’ th’ time.” She looked at him, getting his meaning through the fog of the dialect. “Why don’t you speak ordinary English?” she said coldly. 6 in Irish names:  O’Neill and O’Casey 7 the plurals of letters: In the winter months, his R’s blew off (old Peter Cook and Dudley Moore joke, explaining the mysterious zoo sign “T OPICAL FISH, THIS WAY”). 8  plurals of words: What are the do’s and don’t’s? Feel free to comment in order to tell me if reading the post was useful.

MYSTERIOUS English Punctuation /ˌpʌŋktʃuˈeɪʃn/ Firstly, let's define the noun "punctuation". It is the marks used in writing that divide sentences and phrases; the system of using these marks. How many marks do you know? I dare you to name at least 9. Undoubtedly, the trickiest of all is COMMA ",", the average frequency for which is 61.6 (per 1000 words)! The mark is used to separate the items in a list or to show where there is a slight break in a sentence. So, the weirdest rule concerns complex sentences. The commas are only used if the subordinate clause comes before the main one. Show thumbs up 👍 if you know and follow the rule. If you know and follow the rule, show thumbs up 👍.

I have now to deliver on my promise to you. Welcome out today's guest Lynne Truss, an English author, journalist, novelist, radio broadcaster, former editor and dramatist and her bestseller "Eats, shoots & leaves". Lynne is arguably best known for her championing of correctness and aesthetics in the English language. Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation (published in 2003) is a non-fiction book. In it Truss bemoans the state of punctuation in the United Kingdom and the United States and describes how rules are being relaxed in today's society. Her goal is to remind readers of the importance of punctuation in the English language by mixing humour and instruction. The interesting fact is that he author dedicates the book "to the memory of the striking Bolshevik printers of St. Petersburg who, in 1905, demanded to be paid the same rate for punctuation marks as for letters. 😉 👇 Below you can find the joke from the cover of the book. 🐼 A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air. "Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder. "I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up." The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds an explanation. "Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots & leaves." We've got something of the kind in that old cartoon about Vovka, haven't we? The book is not just a piece of comedy and ridicule, however, and Truss has plenty to offer on the question of proper grammar usage. Anxious about the apostrophe? Confused by the comma? Stumped by the semicolon? Join Lynne Truss on a hilarious tour through the rules of punctuation that is sure to sort the dashes from the hyphens. It is high time we looked at our commas and semicolons and saw them as the wonderful and necessary things they are! Not surprisingly, there's even an IELTS academic reading topic based on Eats, Shoots and Leaves. 😉 My question is if you are a stickler for punctuation as Tuss and I are or not. Let me know the answer in the comments.