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| Why Can't the British Teach Their Children to... Use Commas? | |
| By andybyers | ||||||||||||||
| 10 August 2007 | ||||||||||||||
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I've noticed, in my correspondence, that a lot of people in Britain and Ireland are spectacularly bad at using commas where they're indicated... usually in addressing people by name or separating interjections from the main body of an idea. Not everyone, but enough that it bears commenting upon, I think. With apologies to BrianRobertNeal
No I blame Oscar Wilde This is apparently faux Spanish for “I don't blame Oscar Wilde”. In English, the sentence would read, “No, I blame Oscar Wilde.”
Spot on George Apparently, there is a spot on George; of exactly what nature (ink, paint, freckle, cancerous) is not disclosed. If the sentence were meant to construe that George had gotten something completely right, it would have read, “Spot on, George.”
Anymore talk like that Friggy and you’ll not be spanked tonight. Someone seems to be imitating Friggy. If this were actually addressed to someone named Friggy, it would read, “Anymore talk like that, Friggy, and you’ll not be spanked tonight.”
Smutty isn’t that Sooty’s Afro-Caribbean friend. Smutty is disqualified from being the friend of Sooty. If Smutty were Sooty's friend, the sentence would require not a comma, but actually a semi-colon (or even a question mark): “Smutty; isn’t that Sooty’s Afro-Caribbean friend?” or “Smutty? Isn’t that Sooty’s Afro-Caribbean friend?”
Come on Nige gives us a song. Someone is being commanded to ejaculate on a person named “Nige gives us a song”. A request for Nigel to sing would be, “Come on, Nige, give us a song.”
So come on husbands People should, it would seem, ejaculate on husbands. Wouldn't the wives object?
So if there’s no football on the telly well you might as well pleasure the wife. Whatever a “telly well” is, if there's no football on it, pleasuring the wife is indicated. If there's no soccer on television, however, the sentence would be, “So if there’s no football on the telly, well, you might as well pleasure the wife.” This is because “well” is an interjection and is due to be separated by commas from the rest of the sentence.
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