The Library

There are two tests to help you decide if you need a comma between your adjectives or not. They are both simple and can be found on my page Commas with adjectives.

The pronoun I is always capitalised.

• I saw her standing there.
• When will I be famous?



Do you make any other common capitalisation mistakes?

Don’t use an apostrophe when creating plurals. The following are all wrong:

• I have five apple’s.
• Shall we watch the new’s on TV?
• I was born in the 1960’s.



Do you make any other common apostrophe mistakes?

When two complete sentences are joined together using a co-ordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so), they should have a comma before the co-ordinating conjunction.

• I have spoken to Sarah, and she has confirmed the dates.
  (I have spoken to Sarah. + She has confirmed the dates. Two complete sentences joined together with and.)


Compare:

• I wanted to go to the beach, but I couldn’t afford to pay for a hotel room.
  (There should be a comma before but because I couldn’t afford to pay for a hotel room is a complete sentence.)
• I wanted to go to the beach, but I couldn’t afford to pay for a hotel room.
  (There should be a comma before but because I couldn’t afford to pay for a hotel room is a complete sentence.)



Do you make any other common comma mistakes?

Ellipses (…) are a series of three dots that have several uses.
They can show that something has been removed from a sentence:

• Sarah talked endlessly about her flower garden, the weather, her job, her holiday, her boyfriend and anything else that came to her mind.
  (The original sentence.)


• Sarah talked endlessly about her flower garden, … and anything else that came to her mind.
  (The new sentence still makes sense, but the ellipsis mark shows the reader that something has been removed.)


They can show a pause:

• Richard. You must … you must see it my way.


They can show an unfinished sentence:

• I really don’t know what I’m going to do …



Do any other English punctuation terms puzzle you?

Take a look at my page English Punctuation Quiz.

Do the quiz to see which common English punctuation mistakes you need help with.