Capital letters: Capital letters come after any of these punctuation marks: '!', '?', and '.'. If any of these are placed anywhere, if you start a new sentence next to them it must begin with a capital letter. Always.
--Also, proper nouns require capital letters. These, to put it extremely simply, are names. So it includes human names, pet names (NOT hamster,
rabbit, etc, but Snuffles, Goldie, the like), country/continent names, and natural formation names (not stream, cliff, river, etc, but Niagara Falls and the like), as well as many more.
Full stops: These mark when a sentence ends. Simple. Other sentence enders include '!', '?', and '~'.
About the 'swirly thing': This is used when you have absolutely nothing more to say. It ends your entire peice, so once you use in on the end of a sentence you can't start another one. Magazine authors use a square instead, but it serves the same purpose.
Commas: I see these used too liberally. All they do is dictate where to pause slightly while reading. If you're having trouble with comma placement, read your sentance through aloud under your breath to determine where you should put them.
User-submitted guides:
There: indicates place, i.e. "over there."
Their: indicates possession, i.e. "their house."
They're: contraction of "they" and "are."
Your: indicates possession, i.e. "your avatar."
You're: contraction of "you" and "are."
to : suggesting movement or place (at its base level)
two : representing two of a noun
too : To an excessive degree.
It's: Used as a contraction for "it is." DOES NOT indicate possession.
Its: The possessive form, marking an object belonging to "it."
Comma splicing.
Two complete sentences cannot be stuck together with just a comma. They need a word like "and," "but," "or", or a semi-colon.
Semicolons.
They are used for sentences that are stand-alone, but have the same topic. For example:
"The dog ran; he was barking a lot."
Wont vs. Won't
Wont: accustomed; used: She was wont to drum her fingers when anxious.
Won't: contraction of the phrase "will not": He won't come out of his room."
Cant vs. Can't
Cant: insincere, especially conventional expressions of enthusiasm for high ideals, goodness, or piety
((If someone can think of a sentence for this, I'd appreciate. I'm kind of braindead at the moment.))
Can't: contraction of the phrase/word "can not/cannot": I can't go to the party tomorrow!
Women is the plural of woman.
Super Perfundo
I would like to interject some things in opposition to a couple of rules on here:
1) "All they do is dictate where to pause slightly while reading." This was regarding comma usage in the first post. This is not true. I can name many instances where commas are used for something other than a pause.
Lists:
"Bill went to the store, school, and a museum today."
Introductory clauses/phrases/words:
"Because I slept in, I was late for school."
"Having found the girl, he hugged her."
"Well, I've got to go now."
Randomly inserted clauses/phrases:
"The girl, only 8, was a child prodigy."
Geography/Dates/Titles:
"I live in Dallas, Texas."
"I was born November 14, 1989."
"Ross Gellar, MD, is an expert in dinosaurs."
Quotations:
"I can't do it," John replied.
"I can't do it," John said, "because I don't know how."
To prevent confusion:
"To Emily, Dickens was a great poet."
Granted, you do pause for some of these, but it's important to note that some of them are certainly not where you would pause and even if you do pause, it's still important to clarify the necessity for a pause.
--------
2) This isn't necessarily an objection, but I think it's important to point out in the first post that "its", used for possession, is not capitalized. People often capitalize it, but that's incorrect.
Ex: "The house was green, but its paint is peeling."
--------
3) I would also like to point out that, contrary to what we were taught in grammar school, it is now acceptable to use "and" and "but" to begin a sentence. Incomplete sentences are now commonly accepted as well. (It's modern, guys!)
--------
4) An example sentence for "cant": The cant woman openly exalted the President, expressing her enthusiasm for his war ideas and praising his intelligence, but everyone knew she was a liberal.
---------
5) I disagree with whomever said that punctuation is always placed inside quotation marks. I specifically remember singing a song about this in third grade and I know the book "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" disagrees. However, since it's not going in the original post, I guess it doesn't matter. I saw it while I was skimming through the topic, though, and my grammar radar started buzzing like mad so I felt I should mention it.
---------
6) Something that's always bothered me is the incorrect use of "who" when it should be "whom". "Who" is a subject and "whom" is an object.
Ex: Who is going to the dance?
Whom are you taking to the dance?
In addition to this rule, it's also important to note that "to" is never used to end a sentence. "To" is a preposition that is used before a noun to clarify it.
Ex: Whom are you speaking to?(or, God forbid, Who are you speaking to?)
Should be: To whom are you speaking?
That's all I have for now.
1) "All they do is dictate where to pause slightly while reading." This was regarding comma usage in the first post. This is not true. I can name many instances where commas are used for something other than a pause.
Lists:
"Bill went to the store, school, and a museum today."
Introductory clauses/phrases/words:
"Because I slept in, I was late for school."
"Having found the girl, he hugged her."
"Well, I've got to go now."
Randomly inserted clauses/phrases:
"The girl, only 8, was a child prodigy."
Geography/Dates/Titles:
"I live in Dallas, Texas."
"I was born November 14, 1989."
"Ross Gellar, MD, is an expert in dinosaurs."
Quotations:
"I can't do it," John replied.
"I can't do it," John said, "because I don't know how."
To prevent confusion:
"To Emily, Dickens was a great poet."
Granted, you do pause for some of these, but it's important to note that some of them are certainly not where you would pause and even if you do pause, it's still important to clarify the necessity for a pause.
--------
2) This isn't necessarily an objection, but I think it's important to point out in the first post that "its", used for possession, is not capitalized. People often capitalize it, but that's incorrect.
Ex: "The house was green, but its paint is peeling."
--------
3) I would also like to point out that, contrary to what we were taught in grammar school, it is now acceptable to use "and" and "but" to begin a sentence. Incomplete sentences are now commonly accepted as well. (It's modern, guys!)
--------
4) An example sentence for "cant": The cant woman openly exalted the President, expressing her enthusiasm for his war ideas and praising his intelligence, but everyone knew she was a liberal.
---------
5) I disagree with whomever said that punctuation is always placed inside quotation marks. I specifically remember singing a song about this in third grade and I know the book "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" disagrees. However, since it's not going in the original post, I guess it doesn't matter. I saw it while I was skimming through the topic, though, and my grammar radar started buzzing like mad so I felt I should mention it.
---------
6) Something that's always bothered me is the incorrect use of "who" when it should be "whom". "Who" is a subject and "whom" is an object.
Ex: Who is going to the dance?
Whom are you taking to the dance?
In addition to this rule, it's also important to note that "to" is never used to end a sentence. "To" is a preposition that is used before a noun to clarify it.
Ex: Whom are you speaking to?(or, God forbid, Who are you speaking to?)
Should be: To whom are you speaking?
That's all I have for now.
