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What is the difference between : and ; ?
: – is what, and when to use?
Use a semicolon to join two independent clauses without a conjunction.
Example: I ate; she farted.
Use a colon to end an independent clause and join something to it.
Example 2: I feasted on the following foods: pizza, chips, cookies.
An independent clause has a subject and predicate and can serve as a complete sentence.
I know declarative questions must end in a period. However, could this be considered a declarative statement?
The big bad wolf really took a liking to her grandma – and how!
The expression “and how!” is being used as an interjection to communicate a reaction to the prior statement, not as a question.
What is the difference between the two sentences given below?
Also, what is the difference between “was” and “did”?
It would be great if you could explain me with examples.
“Did” is the past tense of the verb “do.” When combined with another verb, “did” indicates that an action occured in the past, as in the following examples.
ex: He did eat the pizza.
“Was” is the past tense of the verb “to be.” (In the present tense, the verb “to be” is “is.”). “Was” is the linking verb that connects a subject with some type of description.
When was he born? – This correctly uses “was” to link “he” to the description “born,” as in “he was born.” This sentence is grammatically correct.
When did he born? – This tries to add “did” to a verb, as in “he did born.” However, “born” is not a verb; it’s an adjective here. This sentence is grammatically incorrect.
Now, to determine whether to use “invite” or “invites,” you need to find the subject of the verb. Here, the subject is “committee.” This is singular. A committee is ONE group of people. Regardless of how many people are in the group or the type of group, it is still ONE group.
The subject is not “cousins.” The prepositional phrase “of cousins” tells what type of committee, and, as we have seen, the subject is committee.
Now that we know that the subject of the verb is singular, we also know that the verb needs to be singular. Thus, “invites” is the correct verb here.
Help with finding the subject and verb?
There’s only a tiny margin for error on that narrow fairway of that golf course.
Can someone help me identify the subject and verb, and if possible explain on that sentence above?
You are asking a really great, and complicated, question with this sentence.
First, grammar: The words in the subject’s and verb’s places are “There” and “is,” respectively. “There” is the subject; we call this the grammatical subject because it is the word in the subject postion. Also, “is” is the main verb.
Now, why is this a great question?
This is a crappy sentence. Although the word “there” is in the subject’s place, the sentence is not about “there.” It is about the fairway. Because the sentence is about the fairway, we call “fairway” the rhetorical subject.
When Should Punctuation Go Inside the Quotation Marks, and When Should It Stay Outside?
I was always told that punctuation should stay inside the quotation marks. But there are times when it seems like the punctuation belongs outside the quotation marks.
For example, if you have a title with quotes around it (because we can’t always italicize), and the title is at the end of a sentence, does it seem wrong to put the period inside the quotes? The period isn’t part of the title, correct?
And yet the lone punctuation mark doesn’t look right outside the quotation marks, either.
In U.S. English conventions, question marks and colons that are NOT part of the quotation go outside the final quotation mark. Otherwise, they go inside.
Are these sentences in the passive voice?? help :)?
The second one is not passive. The first one might or might not be passive depending on how it is used.
Here’s how you tell the difference.
1. Find the action (“settled” “lain hidden”).
2. Find the subject of the verb (“It” “he”).
3. Ask whether or not the subject is doing the action.
If the subject does the action, the sentence is active.
If the subject is not doing the action, or if the action is done to the subject, the sentence is passive.
In the first one, the action is “is settled.” The subject “It” did not do the action. “two people” did the action to “it.” Because the subject did not do the action and because the action was done to the subject, the sentence is passive.
In the second one, the action, again, is “is settled.” Did “It” (the soil”) do the action (“is settled”)? Yes. The subject did the action of settling to the bottom of the glass. Because the subject did the action, the sentence is active.
In your other sentence (“He had lain hidden in the feathers”), what is the action and subject? The action is “had lain.” The subject is “he.” Did the subject (“he”) do the action (“had lain”)? Yes. The subject did the action, so this sentence is active.
“The robber stole the money” – active. The subject (“robber”) did the action (“stole”).
“The money was stolen” – passive. The subject did not do the action; the action was done to the subject.
Are these real sentences or fragments?
That’s what life really is; a game.
You win by staying in school and lose by, of course, dropping out.
It’s good that you asked. One of these IS a fragment, and 3 others are incorrect grammatically.
Change the semicolon to a colon, and this one will be fine, as well.
5. You win by staying in school and lose by, of course, dropping out.
I want to know the basics of (,) or the advanced level of it. I know you can use it after FANBOYS as in (For, And, Norm But, Or , Yet, So). However, when are other places you can use a comma? please give an example of a sentence with explanation.
First, you don’t use a comma after FANBOYS–you use them BEFORE those coordinating conjunctions when you are joining two complete sentences (called “independent clauses”).
For example: I will not not leave, nor will I be quiet.
Third, commas are used in many ways, too many to list here, but here are some examples.
a. After an introductory adverbial phrase: When the boy was gone [comma here] his sister cleaned his room.
b. Between items in a list or series: I love to eat pickles [comma] peanut butter [comma] and pretzels.
c. Around appositives: Steel [comma] a metal alloy [comma] is used to make bridges.
d. Around the name of the person you are addressing: Please take this [comma] John [comma] as a gift.