Comma? Semi-colon? Em dash?
Hi! I'm struggling to find the correct way to punctuate a sentence like this:
"Alexander was born in the Scottish town of Inverness, a foreboding place surrounded by the misty glens of the Scottish Highlands."
After Inverness, should that be a comma or a semi-colon? Or perhaps an em dash? Help would be much appreciated!
Top answer
a comma is fine. a semi-colon is incorrect. It is used to join two complete sentences, and a foreboding place surrounded by the misty glens of the Scottish Highlands is not a complete sentence a dash is OK, but be careful not to get into the habit of using a lot of dashes.
- a comma is fine.
- a semi-colon is incorrect.
- It is used to join two complete sentences, and a foreboding place surrounded by the misty glens of the Scottish Highlands is not a complete sentence a dash is OK, but be careful not to get into the habit of using a lot of dashes.
- They can begin to annoy the reader and can sometimes obscure your meaning.
- Clive
Get the Weekly English Kit 📬
New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.
a comma is fine.
a semi-colon is incorrect. It is used to join two complete sentences, and a foreboding place surrounded by the misty glens of the Scottish Highlands is not a complete sentence
a dash is OK, but be careful not to get into the habit of using a lot of dashes. They can begin to annoy the reader and can sometimes obscure your meaning.
C
0By the way, "foreboding" is a wrong word. You mean "forbidding". That is so common a mistake some will say it is correct for that reason, as do some of the modern descriptivistic dictionaries. The Oxford English Dictionary says otherwise, as do many others, but the picture is blurred by the existence of an adjective "foreboding", which does not mean stern and repellent but ominous or p
0
Related Questions