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Commas ,: To Vs Too in English

The document discusses various punctuation marks used in English including commas, quotation marks, hyphens, and the Oxford comma. It provides examples of how these punctuation marks can significantly change the meaning of sentences if used incorrectly.

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Vishal Kumar Shaw
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32 views2 pages

Commas ,: To Vs Too in English

The document discusses various punctuation marks used in English including commas, quotation marks, hyphens, and the Oxford comma. It provides examples of how these punctuation marks can significantly change the meaning of sentences if used incorrectly.

Uploaded by

Vishal Kumar Shaw
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Punctuation is essential, and is used to convey and clarify the meaning of written

language. It is such simple marks as the full stop or the comma, and the more
complex ones of semicolons and hyphens. Getting punctuation wrong can change
the entire meaning of a sentence. So, if you want to make sure your written English
is understood, read on.
Commas ,
Perhaps more than any other punctuation mark, the omission or improper use of
commas can have confusing, hilarious, or even life-threatening consequences for
your writing in English.
Look at this sentence, with and without its comma:
Let’s eat Bob.
Let’s eat, Bob.
If you don’t see why the comma is so important here, glance at your friend Bob as
you read the first sentence. He should look extremely worried. He may even
nervously start joking that a prime rib might be much tastier than a middle- aged
English man.
How about when we find an unnecessary comma in a phrase or sentence? A street
sign that says ‘No, U turn’ holds a very different meaning to the more regularly seen
one reading, ‘No U turn.’ In fact, the two sentences have opposite meanings.
 To vs Too in English
The Oxford Comma
The Oxford comma comes after the penultimate item in a list of three or more things.
Here is an example: ‘The scarves were red, blue, and yellow’. With or without the
comma, the meaning doesn’t change in this sentence. English speakers often argue
over whether this type of comma is necessary.
However, the Oxford comma can be extremely important in some situations.
For example, you write, ‘I love my parents, Dolly Parton and Martin Luther King.’ On
reading this, most English speakers will have a good chuckle imagining that your
parents are Dolly Parton and MLK. Things are much clearer with the Oxford comma:
‘I love my parents, Dolly Parton, and Martin Luther King’. All four of them.
Or this: ‘For breakfast I had toast, eggs and orange juice’. Bleurgh! Try: ‘For
breakfast I had toast, eggs, and orange juice’. Much more palatable.

Quotation marks “”
Aside from their use in speech and quotations from books, quotation marks are often
used by writers to put distance between them and the words. It’s the same as when
we use air quotes to say we disapprove or disagree with something.
So, if I put that this blog was written by a “professional” writer, that’s quite an insult to
me. Unfortunately, these quotation marks are overused in English and you will see
them in lots of places they shouldn’t be. Would you buy a sandwich that was made
“fresh”? Or perhaps you would like to have a deep and meaningful conversation with
a “real” person? No, me neither.

Hyphens –
Like quotation marks above, hyphens are often misused in English, even by
native speakers. Their importance is also underestimated, but they too can change
the whole meaning of a sentence.
Would you be able to tell the difference if your boss offered you these alternatives:
‘twenty-four hour shifts’ or ‘twenty four-hour shifts’? In the former, your hours would
be long. In the latter, you’d be doing a lot of short shifts. It’s certainly worth checking
the difference.
Look at these two signs and decide which would make you be more cautious:
Caution! Man eating crocodiles.
Caution! Man-eating crocodiles.
If you’re human, which I presume you are, then you should be more scared of the
second one. (If you’re a crocodile, then it’s the first.)

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