Search results for 'tag:Commas tag:Expressions' matching tags 'Commas' and 'Expressions'

Re: What's the difference between these words?

Mr Wordy — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:17:33 GMT

"Maybe" is more conversational and less likely to be used in formal writing, but other than that the two words are very often interchangeable -- as they are in all your dictionary examples. There might be some expressions in which only one of "maybe" or "perhaps" is idiomatic, but none immediately come to mind.

John is not a engineer, maybe a technician.

This is not very good English. You could say John is not a engineer; maybe/perhaps he's a technician. or John is not a engineer; he may be a technician. In ordinary conversation John is not a engineer ... maybe a technician. is a kind of shorthand, but I wouldn't punctuate it with a comma.

Perhaps/maybe, but I'm not sure about that.

Fine.

Perhaps, I may have a car.

I'd punctuate this as Perhaps I may have a car (unless you actually mean Perhaps. I may have a car.). Strictly you don't need both "perhaps" and "may", but in ordinary conversation it's the kind of thing one would say. Actually, to answer my own question, when the sentence (redundantly) also includes the word "may", it would sound odd to use "maybe". For example, Maybe I may have a car is strange (while Maybe I'll have a car is fine).

Re: by

Grammar Geek — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 13:38:52 GMT

(Edit made)

I never thought it modified the entire front - I just strugged to understand it. The full sentence isn't really much better, but there's a world of difference in saying "this channel" (the one we just discussed) and "the channel" (as though there is only one).

I am struggling becuase I can't possibly relate having children to "self-expression" and, more to the point of your question, the function of that second "by" phrase. Are you sure there was no comma before that "by"?

It has an adverse effect by depriving them and [using comma to equal and in this case] by frustating this need.

Re: correction

Avangi — Sun, 25 May 2008 04:06:32 GMT

The language is quite good.

I'm not sure if you mean to imply that the picture is of a one-man boat. The way the sentence flows, you expect both statements to relate to comparing the size. I've never been sailing. Does the term "skipper" specifically refer to the person who handles the tiller? We use it as a friendly term for the captain, or the person in charge. "The skipper" = "The captain." You address him casually as "Skipper." I could be wrong, but I think "crew" always refers to a group of more than one. I guess you could say, "a crew of one," like "a party of one." I believe "crewman" or "crew member" would refer to one individual. (I note you use "crew member" the second time, but the first time might be a problem.)

How about paragraphs? May we occasionally have a new paragraph? The thing about the partner and the class comes out of the blue, or "off the wall." You need to somehow introduce that you're taking a class. Otherwise we say, "What the heck is this?"

Re the "After long" sentence, you at least need a comma after "consideration." It was difficult for me to parse on my first try. It's sort of a compound introductory phrase - one prepositional, and one participial. I'm not sure if it would be better, were they of the same genre. It may be considered an error that "after long consideration" appears to refer to you, and I don't believe it really does. (After long consideration, I sailed)

There's a small time-frame problem in the next non-paragraph. You had sailed out to the calm lake. From whence? It sounds like it might have taken a while. If it's a large lake, and we commence from a dock at the edge of it, we'd say, "I sailed out into the lake." If, on the other hand, our dock is located on some kind of an inlet, we could say "I sailed out to the lake [proper]. Either way, it sounds like you covered some distance. The weather changed abruptly "shortly after that." Then you say, "I was not far from the dock, as I'd just left." It doesn't "add up."

"The calm weather, all of a sudden, turned violent." This interruption in the flow of the sentence spoils the urgency of it. Try, "The calm weather suddenly turned violent," or "Suddenly the calm weather turned violent."

Re "the two students," there's not really a clear antecedent (wrong word). I'd say, "and its two students were in the water." The expression is "treading water," but you can't say "water" twice. You need to work something else out.

Re "another boat followed," I know what you mean, but "followed" is ambiguous here (followed you around?). How about, "another boat met the same fate."? (Moby Dick: "and all save one shall follow")

"on a jet ski" set off with commas. "rode to the rescue"

To me, it was a great experience. OR It was a great experience for me.

Best wishes, - A.

Re: subordinate clauses?

Jackson6612 — Sat, 24 May 2008 08:57:34 GMT

Anonymous

Why are number 1's correct, whereas number 2's are not? Please note the commas.

First Part:
1. Stealing is illegal, because it is a crime.

2. Stealing is illegal because it is a crime.

Second Part:
1. Fishing is important to us, since it generates a lot of income.

2. Since fishing generates a lot income, it is important to us.

I can understand what thing is baffling you. In the First Part you would be thinking about the use of that comma. I don't think that the second sentence is incorrect. Sometimes what choice of words/punctuation an author uses in certain expressions is completely at his discretion. So both sentences in the First Part are correct. because is used when stating the reason for something. In the following sentence no comma is used in front of because. The President has played a shrewd diplomatic game because from the outset he called for direct talks with the United States...

Now come to the Second Part. since is used to introduce reasons or explanations. since=as. since can also be used at the start of the sentences but only when the sentence begins with the subordinate clause. e.g. Since you are unable to answer, we should ask someone else. In that sentence you cannot use since in front of we because the clause starting with we is the main one. The second sentence is also correct. It's just that it starts with the subordinate clause.

Kind regards,
Jackson

Re: Grammar doubts

Clive — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:06:47 GMT

Hi,

(1) This seems to be a perennial problem, that we cannot live without bloodshed, without going after our enemies.

Comma usage, please check. OK

(2) But the basic drive is to get food and to get the mating available. And it is in this ~~here~~ that Jainas perceive what kinds of passions are working.

Can "And it is in this here" be rephrased fro clarity? Please rephrase.

Some people say you shouldn't start a sentence with 'but', or with 'and'. Why not join the two sentences, with a comma?

'To get the mating available' is also a clumsy expression. Say it another way. Actually, it all sounds a bit awkward. Was it written by a non-native speaker?

(3) And it is in this way that Jainism began, with a large group of mendicants who decided, who left the household life, left all the activities, subsisted on the least possible, amount needed for food and water and shelter, and led a very frugal life, sustained by the laypeople who were able to support them.

Do we need comma before amount? Please advise. No. Remove it.

(4) But nowadays these are asked and they must perforce find answers to that.

Is the usage "perforce find" ok? Please check. Yes. It's a literary kind of phrase. Is the singular 'that' intended to refer to the plural 'these'?

(5) This is the tale of an elephant who, in his very next rebirth, was reborn as Prince Mega and become an eminent Jaina monk under Mahavira. And Mahavira is telling the past story of this particular man:

become or became? Please advise Became.

Best wishes, Clive

Re: Is the translation correct?

Feebs11 — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 01:32:02 GMT

Tyoma
Hello Feebs! Thank you very much for your answear. It is really very useful for me.

At the moment I'm working on the next part of the page, which is about our requirements relating to graphical banners. And I have the same questions. Is my translation correct? Does it sound natural?
Banner Requirements
File formats: GIF and FLASH

Dimensions

Max Size

480Ã90

240Ã180

20KB

240Ã400

480Ã180

30KB

100%Ã60

40KB

Those banners which donât have borders look more beautiful and those which are not animated look even better (besides, they work better).
Banners cannot contain annoying animation, grammatical and orthographic mistakes. They also must comply with Russian legislation.
The link for FLASH banners should be written in the on-release handler (on (release) { }) as follows: getURL(banner_href, "_blank"); so that our system can count the clicks correctly. In that way, after clicking on the banner the link will be opened in a new window.
Itâs a button which should be an object for the handler. Your attention is drawn to the absence of inverted commas in the first parameter. This is very important. To do so, you should switch the entry field into the expression mode (â=â). Hereâs the explicative picture (Macromedia FLASH MX):
[picture]
When publishing or exporting a banner, install FLASH-player 6 or lower and ActionScript 1.0.

Re: Is the translation correct?

Tyoma — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 08:39:26 GMT

Hello Feebs! Thank you very much for your answear. It is really very useful for me.

At the moment I'm working on the next part of the page, which is about our requirements to graphical banners. And I have the same questions. Is my translation correct? Does it sound natural?

Banner Requirements

File formats: GIF and FLASH

Dimensions	Max Size
480Ã90 240Ã180	20KB
240Ã400 480Ã180	30KB
100%Ã60	40KB

Those banners which donât have borders look more beautiful and those which are not animated look even better (besides they work better).
Banners cannot contain annoying animation, grammatical and orthographic mistakes, they also must comply with Russian legislation.
The link for FLASH banners should be written in the on-release handler (on (release) { }) as follows: getURL(banner_href, "_blank"); so that our system could count the clicks correctly. In that way after clicking on the banner the link will be opened in a new window.
Itâs a button which should be an object for the handler. Please draw your attention to the absence of the inverted commas in the first parameter, itâs very important. To do so, you should switch the entry field into the expression mode (â=â). Hereâs the explicative picture (Macromedia FLASH MX):
[picture]
When publishing or exporting a banner, install FLASH-player 6 or lower and ActionScript 1.0.

Re: "What" in title

Delmobile — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 14:57:32 GMT

Diving in here - if the translator thought for some reason that he or she could replace "The Expression of Cathepsin D" with "what" the second time it appears in the title, the translator was wrong. You could possibly leave it out the second time, maybe if you stuck in a "both." (That's if I'm parsing all these scientific terms correctly.)

"The Expression of Cathepsin D Both in Type II Cell Death of JM Cells Induced by Matrine and in Germinal Centers of Follicular Lymphoma and Follicular Hyperplasia"

And with maybe a little judicious use of Our Friend, the Comma. Not that we really need commas here - in fact I think they're technically incorrect - but sometimes they do help in this kind of long, dense chain.

"The Expression of Cathepsin D, Both in Type II Cell Death of JM Cells Induced by Matrine, and in Germinal Centers of Follicular Lymphoma and Follicular Hyperplasia"

Re: Do I need commas around "exactly"?

Yoong Liat — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 02:21:09 GMT

Akavall wrote:

Thanks. But would it be wrong to use the commas? My understanding was that if you can take out a word or a phrase and the sentence still make sense, then you could (should in some cases) put commas around it. In this example, I can take out "exactly" and the sentence still makes sense and has pretty much the same meaning.

Hi Akavall

He knew exactly how much they were worth_II She gave it everything she was worth_II. NN1 is used when worth is obviously nominal, and also in expressions ...
www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/docs/claws7.html - 94k - Cached - Similar pages

A corpus header has exactly the same structure as any other TEI header; ... The corpus description file must have exactly the same name as the corpus to ...
www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/tools/sara/indexing.html - 18k - Cached - Similar pages

She is not exactly an expert, but he is very good. (English Essential Dictionary)

Tell me exactly what he said. (English Essential Dictionary)

In the above sentences, if you take out 'exactly', the sentences still make sense. Hence, my conclusion is that commas are not needed in the sentence provided by you.

Best wishes.

Re: Is this a right use of a semicolon?

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 07:20:28 GMT

Actually, conjunctions after semicolons are very common.

Gregg Reference Manual: Seventh Canadian Edition

Rules:
176 a) When a coordinating conjunction (and, but , o, nor and sometimes for, so, or yet) is omitted between t between two independent clauses, use a semicolon--not a comma--to seperate the clauses. If you, prefer, you can treat the second clause as a seperate sentence.

177 a) A comma is normally used to seperate two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction, However, under certain circumstances a semicolon is appropriate before the coordinating conjuction.

NORMAL BREAK: Man people are convinced that they could personaly solve the problem if geven the authority to do so, but no one will come forward with a clear-cut plan that we can evaluste in advance.

STRONG BREAK: Many people are convinced that they could personally solve the problem if geven the authority to do so; ubt no on ewill come forward with a clear-cut plan that we can evaluate in advance.

177 b) Use a semicolon when one or both clauses have internal commas, and a misreading might occur if a comma also seperated the clauses

The most common use of semi-colons is below.

178) When independent clauses are linked by transitional expressions(see a partial list below, use a semiccolon between the clauses. (If the second cluase is long or requires special emphasis, treat it as a separate sentence.)

accordingly      however                so
besides            moreover            that is
consequently    namely                  then
for example      nevertheless          therefore
furthermore      on the contrary      thus
hence               otherwise            yet

They have given us tan oral okay to proceed; however, we are still waiting for writeen confirmation.

Our costs have started to level off; our sales, moreover, have continued to grow.

Let's give them another month' then we can pin them down on their progress

NOTE: Use a comma after the transitional expression when it occurs at the start of a lause. (See the first example above.) However, no comma is needed after hence, then, thus so, and yet unless a pause is wanted at that point. (Multi sylabic conjunctions should be followed by a comma.)