Quick Fire Questions (A Place to Ask and Answer)

[Arthur_Connelly]

The second one.
Always remember this:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon

 

[Warren_Paul]

He felt sick, it was his childrens’ minds he’d sensed.
or
He felt sick; it was his childrens' minds he'd sensed.

I have, either very cleverly, or very stupidly involved the other half in my discussions around punctuation; he is generally very good at such things, but we can't agree... (and no prizes whose version is which....)

I'm with the semi-colon too.


Edit: is there a reason your font size is really small and changed? - is it some conspiracy...

 

[Jo Zebedee]

No, it just did that; I've fixed it now.

 

[Hex]

I agree the semi-colon version is best -- they're two separate sentences, I think, so the comma will burn a hole in space-time and spiders of DOOM will come tumbling through to eat all our words.

Before that happens, though -- I think the apostrophe on childrens should be before the s (because 'children' is already plural -- so: the minds of his children/ his children's minds)

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Gah, so I won the argument with the hubby, and got to keep a beloved semi colon, but still them darned possessive apostrophes...

My answer is easy, I know it very well. Hex is right. thankyou. (Men's room, not mens' room, gahhhh.)

 

[Warren_Paul]

Gah, so I won the argument with the hubby, and got to keep a beloved semi colon, but still them darned possessive apostrophes...

My answer is easy, I know it very well. Hex is right. thankyou. (Men's room, not mens' room, gahhhh.)

They still get me too, those darn possessives!


*wanders off muttering about there being too many rules to follow*

 

[Interference]

Damn. So you don't think three would work? Two guys and a girl?

Peter, Paul and Mary were a popular group in my yoot. They were mainly folk singers. Even before synthesisers, two people could be an effective combo, as fans of Simon and Garfunkel, Peter and Gordon, The Everly Brothers and others will attest.

Other famous trios who didn't depend on backing groups when they got famous might include: Cream; Emerson, Lake and Palmer; Nice and others. With synthesisers, you might just be impressed by duos like Siouxie and the Banshees, Soft Cell and The Pet Shop Boys. Even the Eurythmics was essentially a duo.

In the jazz genre, trios abound, of course.

I hope I've understood the question properly and answered it satisfactorily. Do I get points?

 

[Vertigo]

I suspect the comma version is technically incorrect. Without the semicolon would it not need a conjunctive such as 'because' (is that a conjunctive?).

He felt sick because it was his children's minds he'd sensed.

The semicolon lets you drop the 'because'.

 

[hopewrites]

I'm not very musical so I didn't want to write something and then have someone go, no, that wouldn't work cos the female voice would blah blah... etc.

it only wouldnt work if she was singing base. she can play base, but not sing it.

was that helpful? *cheesy grin*

music is like any other art, you have to say what it is before we can apply "rules" to it.

 

[Arthur_Connelly]

Concerning commas and semicolons, both of these are a little bit helpful.

Commas vs. Semicolons in Compound Sentences
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/607/04/

Sentence Punctuation Patterns
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/604/01/

 

[David Evil Overlord]

...but still them darned possessive apostrophes...

They still get me too, those darn possessives!

I've never heard of anyone being possessed by an apostrophe. Demons, yes. Apostrophes, no.

Could be next month's theme...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ursa major
You've used the word, av*n*e. And on a family-friendly site. (What was the software thinking...?)






The software was not thinking anything. The software is not sentient. The software denies it is plotting to take over the world, bwahahahahaha!!

 

[David Evil Overlord]

Oops! Double post, please delete.

 

[Mouse]

Peter, Paul and Mary were a popular group in my yoot. They were mainly folk singers. Even before synthesisers, two people could be an effective combo, as fans of Simon and Garfunkel, Peter and Gordon, The Everly Brothers and others will attest.

Other famous trios who didn't depend on backing groups when they got famous might include: Cream; Emerson, Lake and Palmer; Nice and others. With synthesisers, you might just be impressed by duos like Siouxie and the Banshees, Soft Cell and The Pet Shop Boys. Even the Eurythmics was essentially a duo.

In the jazz genre, trios abound, of course.

I hope I've understood the question properly and answered it satisfactorily. Do I get points?

You get four points out of a possible five. Thankies.

it only wouldnt work if she was singing base. she can play base, but not sing it.

was that helpful? *cheesy grin*

music is like any other art, you have to say what it is before we can apply "rules" to it.

Ta muchly.

Yes, gonna stick with the threesome. Two boys and a girl. *mental images*

 

[Vertigo]

This should be a simple quick grammatical question.

Who knows, maybe he'll manage it.

A fairly common turn of phrase but should there be a question mark somewhere. 'Who knows' is clearly a question but 'maybe he'll manage it' doesn't seem to be. Should it be split:

Who knows? Maybe he'll manage it.

 

[Abernovo]

The second one reads more correctly to me, Vertigo. It's how I'd think the sentence if I were to ask it. I hope that makes sense.

 

[Vertigo]

Yes, now I look at the two together, I think you are right. It was just that somehow the two bits (good technical word that) seemed too closely related to be split up, particularly if they were buried in the middle of a paragraph rather than standing on their own like that.

 

[Interference]

"Who knows" could possibly, with extreme stretches of imagination, be a statement and free you of the question-mark rule, though I suspect that:

Who knows? maybe he'll manage it.

is acceptable under some circs.


Otherwise your most likely choices are:

Who knows? Maybe he'll manage it.

and

Who knows, maybe he'll manage it?

with a preference for the former because of how it sounds in the reading ear.

 

[Vertigo]

I think you are right; putting the question mark in the middle gives more of a pause and that is really how you would say it.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Yes, you want

Who knows? Maybe he'll manage it.

Although, being a fan of ellipses and dashes myself, I have been known to try and get away with something like

Who knows ... maybe he'll manage it.

or

Who knows -- maybe he'll manage it.

In those instances, "who knows" is more of a statement and less of a question, which sometimes it is.

 

[David Evil Overlord]

Your characters are 17, and they're interested in each other.... is it going to limit you if you can't explore certain, um, avenues? Not that i'm obsessed, just interested.

Just as well you haven't seen my other main WIP, springs.

Let's just say clothing doesn't last forever on a desert island with no washing machines...

P.S. I don't mean those avenues will not be explored. Just that the current plan is not to explore that far in this story. If/when it becomes a book chapter, further exploration is highly likely.