# The pitfalls of not using punctuation



## robert@fm (Aug 5, 2020)

I remember a poem I read as a child; I don't remember who by. It makes perfect sense (despite its appearance), but some punctuation to help it do so would be good. 

Caesar entered on his head
A helmet on each foot
A sandal in his hand he held
His trusty sword to boot


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## Pine Marten (Aug 5, 2020)

Haha! I am a grammar Nazi and cannot stand the current lack of punctuation shown on social media! Remember the old example: "Let's eat grandma!" ..... "Let's eat, grandma!"


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## Ralph-YK (Aug 5, 2020)

A panda goes to a cafe. It has lunch. After lunch it stands up and shoots off a gun and walks out. The cafe owner goes after it and asks why they did that.
The panda shows him a book, and says "It's what we do. It says so here!"
In the book is written. "Eats, shoots, and leaves"


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## Ralph-YK (Aug 5, 2020)

Pine Marten said:


> I am a grammar Nazi


Oh No! Too far. There is some basic ... "standards" (ugh, I hate coming down to using that work) though.


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## Sally71 (Aug 5, 2020)

There's a maypole dancer 
Theresa May pole dancer
Only one apostrophe difference 

Actually I find it quite shocking how many people don’t seem to have a clue how to use apostrophes, I can quite clearly remember learning that at school when I was about 6.
I also remember having to explain it to a friend of mine when we were students, she said she couldn’t remember ever learning it, and she was clearly more intelligent than me because she got a 1st class honours in her degree, I didn’t!


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## Ralph-YK (Aug 5, 2020)

On line I've seen post with no fullstops or capitals at all. Not even at the very beginning or end of the post! And people persistently.


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## Pine Marten (Aug 5, 2020)

Yes I have seen that to and I don't like it but never mind happy wednesday to everybody the weather here is not to bad keep safe [note deliberate misspelling of 'too' 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





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## Sally71 (Aug 5, 2020)

Oh yes I hate it also when you see something like a grocer's shop, with a sign outside saying
Apple's
Banana's
Orange's
Pears

I could perhaps forgive someone who had got it the wrong way round, but to not even be consistent is just ridiculous, surely anyone can see that all of the above should be the same! (Without the apostrophe obviously if you are doing it correctly)


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## Charle2911 (Aug 5, 2020)

This is terrible!
But @Sally71 I also become annoyed when companies use apostrophes incorrectly in their brand name! I cannot remember the exact brand, but it was made by a man (or woman) with a surname that ended in ‘s’. I will demonstrate with the name ‘Jones’. The brand was therefore labelled as ‘Jones’ biscuits’ which most people would think of as correct. These people are wrong. The only time that one should use an apostrophe for possession without an ‘s’ is when the noun is plural. The brand should therefore be called ‘Jones’s biscuits’.


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## C&E Guy (Aug 5, 2020)

robert@fm said:


> I remember a poem I read as a child; I don't remember who by. It makes perfect sense (despite its appearance), but some punctuation to help it do so would be good.
> 
> Caesar entered on his head
> A helmet on each foot
> ...



By whom, surely?


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## Ralph-YK (Aug 5, 2020)

Sally71 said:


> Oh yes I hate it also when you see something like a grocer's shop, with a sign outside saying
> Apple's
> Banana's
> Orange's
> ...


Perfectly correct, as it is referring to something that belongs to a single apple, single banana, and single orange. Maybe the plural pears. The apple, banana and orange each has a pear.


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## trophywench (Aug 5, 2020)

I bought, 'Eats shoots and leaves' as the title appealed to my SOH - but sadly the book wasn't amusing.


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## Ralph-YK (Aug 5, 2020)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eats,_Shoots_&_Leaves


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## robert@fm (Aug 8, 2020)

Charle2911 said:


> This is terrible!
> But @Sally71 I also become annoyed when companies use apostrophes incorrectly in their brand name! I cannot remember the exact brand, but it was made by a man (or woman) with a surname that ended in ‘s’. I will demonstrate with the name ‘Jones’. The brand was therefore labelled as ‘Jones’ biscuits’ which most people would think of as correct. These people are wrong. The only time that one should use an apostrophe for possession without an ‘s’ is when the noun is plural. The brand should therefore be called ‘Jones’s biscuits’.


I recently bought a pack of 4 different flavours of biscuit (each in its own box, of course). The brand name was "Annas", which confused me  until I realised that it should have been "Anna's".


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## mikeyB (Aug 11, 2020)

It’s not just apostrophes that I mourn. It’s the correct use of colons and semicolons; or even their use at all.


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## robert@fm (Aug 11, 2020)

Anitram said:


> Anyway, this sign is outside one of our local shops:-
> 
> "Only 2 customer's aloud in the shop at a time"


The customers' music players (since it's referring to something belonging to them, rather than they themselves), and presumably the other customers (or their gadgets) have to stay silent? 

One of my pet peeves is "Customers must not consume food and drink in this shop". Taken literally, this means that it's okay to consume one or the other, as long as it isn't both.    Of course, the correct conjunction for the intended meaning is "or" (union), not "and" (intersection) -- but that is usually rendered as "and/or", which I regard as a particularly dumb tautology, since "or" includes "and" anyway.


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## trophywench (Aug 11, 2020)

Yeah Robert; but how many folk understand the meaning of the word 'tautology' ?


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## robert@fm (Aug 11, 2020)

Anitram said:


> When I read a headline that says 'Two men convicted of robbing a man at The Old Bailey' did they rob a man at The Old Bailey or were they convicted at The Old Baily of robbing a man? You see this kind of writing all the time.


There are worse examples, such as "Juvenile Court to try shooting defendant".     Because they have no faith in a fair trial?


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