A Comma (or Its Absence) Can Change a Sentences Message

A Comma (or Its Absence) Can Change a Sentences Message A Comma (or Its Absence) Can Change a Sentence’s Message A Comma (or Its Absence) Can Change a Sentence’s Message By Mark Nichol Writers are divided in opinion about punctuating introductory words or phrases- and often, they are at war with themselves with the topic. Even adherents of open punctuation will generally insert a comma after an adverb, whether it is transitional, like however, or descriptive, like suddenly, and will follow even a brief modifying phrase such as â€Å"according to the study† or â€Å"contrary to popular belief† with pausing punctuation. But somewhere in between- in the case of a short opening phrase like â€Å"last year† or â€Å"in retrospect†- many people believe a comma setting the phrase off from the sentence’s main clause is unnecessary. For consistency, I advocate generally using a comma regardless of the phrase’s length, but even though I am a close-punctuation adherent, I realize there are exceptions. Consider the use of please, for example. Read this sentence: â€Å"Please sit down.† Now, read this one. â€Å"Please, sit down.† Did you read them differently? I hope so. The intent behind each statement is distinct: â€Å"Please sit down† is an imperative barely tempered by a courtesy term; the person to whom the statement is delivered is expected to comply. By contrast, â€Å"Please, sit down† is an entreaty; the speaker sincerely hopes that the other person will accept the invitation. There’s a difference, too, between â€Å"Of course you would say whatever you thought I wanted to hear† and â€Å"Of course, you would say whatever you thought I wanted to hear.† The first sentence is delivered with some heat; the speaker’s tone is wounded and derisive. The second statement, by contrast, is more measured and reflective. These examples are more subtle than when one decides whether one should punctuate, for example, â€Å"In time you will understand why I acted as I did†: You either agree with me that if one is to punctuate a more extensive introductory phrase (â€Å"When you have time to reflect, you will understand why I acted as I did†)- and most writers will choose to do so- it’s only logical to treat a more concise opening phrase the same way (otherwise, where does one draw the line?), or you don’t agree. But sometimes, what a sentence communicates changes with the mere insertion or omission of a comma, and the writer should be sensitive to such nuances to help the reader read between the lines. Todays video: Calls to Action Pluralizing Compound Nouns Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Punctuation category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:4 Types of Gerunds and Gerund PhrasesYay, Hooray, Woo-hoo and Other AcclamationsEnglish Grammar 101: Sentences, Clauses and Phrases

Italian Capitalization Rules

Italian Capitalization Rules In Italian, an initial capital letter (maiuscolo) is required in two instances: At the beginning of a phrase or immediately after a period, question mark, or exclamation markWith proper nouns Other than these cases, the use of uppercase letters in Italian depends on factors such as stylistic choices or publishing tradition. There is also the maiuscola reverenziale (reverential capital), which is still used frequently with pronouns and possessive adjectives that refer to Dio (God), people or things considered sacred, or people of high regard (pregare Dio e avere fiducia in Lui; mi rivolgo alla Sua attenzione, signor Presidente). In general, though, in contemporary usage, there is a tendency to avoid capitalization that is considered unnecessary. Capitalization at the Beginning of a Phrase To illustrate the occurrences where capital letters are used at the beginning of a phrase here are some examples: Titles in various genres: not just text, but also chapter headings, articles, and other subdivisionsThe start of any text or paragraphAfter a periodAfter a question mark or exclamation mark, but an initial lowercase may be permitted if there are strong logic and continuity of thoughtAt the beginning of a direct speech If a sentence begins with an ellipsis (...), then usually the examples described above begin with lowercase, except when the first word is a proper name. Those instances still require the use of the uppercase. Similarly (but more in terms of a typography choice) is the case in which a capital letter is used at the beginning of each verse in poetry, a device that is sometimes used even when verse is not written on a new line (for reasons of space), instead of using a slash (/), which is generally preferable to avoid ambiguity. Capitalizing Proper Nouns In general, capitalize the first letter of proper names (whether real or fictitious), and any terms that take their place (sobriquets, aliases, nicknames): Person (common names and surnames), animals, godsNames of entities, places, or geographical areas (natural or urban), astronomical entities (as well as astrological)Names of streets and urban subdivisions, buildings and other architectural structuresNames of groups, organizations, movements, and institutional and geopolitical entitiesTitles of artistic works, trade names, products, services, companies, eventsNames of religious or secular holidays There are also cases in which the initial letter is capitalized even with common nouns, for reasons ranging from the need to distinguish them from common concepts, personification, and antonomasia, to showing respect. Examples include: The names of historical eras and events and even of geological periods, centuries and decades; the latter can be written in lower case, but it is preferred to use uppercase if the intent is to call out the historical period.The names of a populace; usually it is customary to capitalize the historical peoples of the past (i Romani), and use lowercase for present-day people (gli italiani). Somewhat more ambiguous, however, is the use of capital letters in Italian compound nouns or in those nouns consisting of a sequence of words; there are a couple of hard-and-fast guidelines, though, that can be recommended: Initial capital letters are required with the sequence common name surname (Carlo Rossi) or more than one common name (Gian Carlo Rossi)Proper names used within nominative sequences such as: Camillo Benso conte di Cavour, Leonardo da Vinci The prepositional particles (particelle preposizionali), di, de, or d are not capitalized when used with the names of historical figures, when surnames didnt exist, to introduce patronyms (de Medici) or toponyms (Francesco da Assisi, Tommaso dAquino); they are capitalized, though, when they form an integral part of contemporary surnames (De Nicola, DAnnunzio, Di Pietro). Capitalization finds its most widespread in the names of institutions, associations, political parties and the like.  The reason for this profusion of capital letters is usually a sign of respect (Chiesa Cattolica), or the tendency to maintain the use of uppercase letters in an abbreviation or acronym (CSM Consiglio Superiore della Magistratura). However, the initial capital can also be limited to just the first word, which is the only obligatory one: the Chiesa cattolica, Consiglio superiore della magistratura.