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PreciousJones Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

Could

My friend is looking for his pet dog who's been walking around the room the whole time. And I say:

He's a 200lb animal going in and out of the place, how could you miss him?

Or

He's a 200lb animal going in and out of the place, how could you have missed him?

Are both useable and interchangable?

Thank you.
  

Top answer

You can't join two complete thoughts with a comma alone. You need a full stop, a semicolon, or a conjunction (and a comma). PreciousJones Are both useable and interchangable?

— RandomGuy

  • You can't join two complete thoughts with a comma alone.
  • You need a full stop, a semicolon, or a conjunction (and a comma).
  • PreciousJones Are both useable and interchangable?
  • There is a slight difference between them, but I think it's negligible in this case, so my answer is yes.
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6 Answers
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You can't join two complete thoughts with a comma alone. You need a full stop, a semicolon, or a conjunction (and a comma).
PreciousJonesAre both useable and interchangable?
There is a slight difference between them, but I think it's negligible in this case, so my answer is yes.
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Aspara GusYou can't join two complete thoughts with a comma alone. You need a full stop, a semicolon, or a conjunction (and a comma).PreciousJonesAre both useable and interchangable?There is a slight difference between them, but I think it's negligible in this case, so my answer is yes.
Aspara Gus,

Can you change it so that it's grammatically okay?
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PreciousJonesCan you change it so that it's grammatically okay?
I would, but I think that defeats the purpose. Let's see if you can do it first, and I'll check it out. It's a just a matter of punctuation.
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Aspara Gus PreciousJonesCan you change it so that it's grammatically okay?I would, but I think that defeats the purpose. Let's see if you can do it first, and I'll check it out. It's a just a matter of punctuation.
He's a 200lb animal going in and out of the place. How could you miss him?

Or

He's a 200lb animal going in and out of the place,
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PreciousJonesHow do they look?
Great!
PreciousJonesShouldn't I change the could in the first sentence to can?
I wouldn't. Use could.
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Aspara Gus PreciousJonesHow do they look?Great!PreciousJonesShouldn't I change the could in the first sentence to can?I wouldn't. Use could.
Thank you very much.
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