Punctuation: The Comma and The Apostrophe Flashcards
What are the 3 different ways to end a sentence?
. - My mom ate a cookie.
! - I’m going to eat so much candy!
? - What is a cat?
Comma “,”
Def. Separating sentence elements such as:
- List: Tofu, seaweed, and spam.
- Dates: July 11, 2004
- Other separations. Basically, anything.
What do commas cannot do?
To be in the end of the sentence.
Salutations and Valedictions
Salutation - The way you start a letter.
Valediction - The way you end a letter.
Commas in space and time
Def. Putting commas to create a sense of space and time.
eg.,
- Address - Nero Wolf, 454W 35th St, New York, NY 10001.
- Dates - On Tuesday, October 5th, 2010, I ate a cricket.
Commas and Introductory Sentences
Def. Separating an introductory dependent clause and an independent clause.
eg.,
- When you come in, please take off your shoes.
How can you unite two independent clauses?
Either with Comma + FANBOYS or with a semicolon(;).
Commas and Introductory Sentence Adverbs
Def. Separating an introductory adverbs and the whole sentence.
eg.,
- Initially, I was afraid.
Tag Questions
Def. A statement that is asking for a question that must be separated by a comma.
eg.,
- You like cheese, don’t you?
Direct Address
Def. Directly addressing someone and must be separated with a comma.
eg.,
- Paige, how are you?
Yes-and-No commas
Def. When you are answering a question using yes and as an introductory element.
eg.,
- No, I hate cheese.
- Yes, I love cheese.
Commas, Exclamations, and Questions in a Dialogue
Def. Commas are the start up ramp for the Dialogue Tag and Reported Speech. In contrast, if it is structured as Reported Speech and Dialogue Tag, then it should end with comma, questions, or exclamations.
eg.,
- Roxanne said, “They are probably pirates.”
- “They’re probably pirates,” Roxanne said.
- “They’re probably pirates, right?” Roxanne said.
- “They’re probably pirates!” Roxanne said.
Appositives
Def. A noun phrase that redefines or clarifies its antecedent-(what comes before) that must be separated with commas.
eg.,
- My older sister, Griselda, is going to college in the fall.
- They stopped selling my favorite snack, the Cookie Cat.
The Oxford Comma aka The Serial Killer Comma
Def. An argument where you should include or not include the last comma written on a list.
eg.,
- My favorite artists are Daniel Caesar, Chris Brown, and Justin Bieber.
- My favorite artists are Daniel Caesar, Chris Brown and Justin Bieber.
What are the 3 things that an Apostrophe can do?
- Contraction - I (did not) didn’t eat the cookie.
- Possession - That was David’s argument paper.
- Trying to make lowercase letter plural. - I am really bad at writing s’s.