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Grammar pedants - help please.

95 watchers

swittle Oct 2022 9:32pm, 20 Oct 2022 91,624 posts	Quote Pin swittle I think three discrete sentences adds a more dramatic impact to her message.
Peregrinator Oct 2022 10:49pm, 20 Oct 2022 1,083 posts	Quote Pin Peregrinator Yes. I assume it's written by a speech writer as a tricolon (and not a 1.5 colon). Which could be done as: "thing A, thing B(,) and thing C". Or as "Thing A. Thing B. Thing C". But the point is they are equal weight. I wondered what slant the writer thought was added by the punctuation. Possibly she just wanted to get out before the building collapsed, and hit keys at random.
Evangel Oct 2022 11:05pm, 22 Oct 2022 3,484 posts	Quote Pin Evangel The hapless minister didn't use incorrect punctuation, but her sentiments could have been expressed less clumsily, and more naturally by writing it as NE suggests. She could perhaps have ended her letter with 'Ha ha!'
Northern Exile Oct 2022 12:01pm, 24 Oct 2022 9,218 posts	Quote Pin Northern Exile Seen on a recent visit to Hay-on-Wye. Given that the town is a bit of a literary mecca, I feel sure that poor Angie has had the rather obvious grammatical error pointed out on numerous occasions
GordonG Oct 2022 12:10pm, 24 Oct 2022 9,383 posts	Quote Pin GordonG Maybe it's a trap. Go inside to point out the error and get insulated while you buy a tea!
Steve NordRunner Oct 2022 12:13pm, 24 Oct 2022 2,096 posts	Quote Pin Steve NordRunner These days you can't be sure she's not intending to offer tea-cakes, either.
Northern Exile Oct 2022 12:24pm, 24 Oct 2022 9,219 posts	Quote Pin Northern Exile Maybe it's a trap. Go inside to point out the error and get insulated while you buy a tea! Insulated? I could do with that actually, bloody freezing here in my office!
Diogenes Oct 2022 12:30pm, 24 Oct 2022 73,764 posts	Quote Pin Diogenes Perhaps there's a lag between pointing out the error and receiving the abuse?
GordonG Oct 2022 1:28pm, 24 Oct 2022 9,384 posts	Quote Pin GordonG Bloody predictive text!!
JCB Oct 2022 1:34pm, 24 Oct 2022 3,590 posts	Quote Pin JCB “Insult us, will you?” yells angry interlocutor.