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Andrei Posted 21 years ago
Grammar
Learning to live - and die - with high pollution levels
Emergency talks are to be held in Italy on Friday to discuss growing pollution in the country's big cities.
Environment Minister Altero Matteoli is expected to meet Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to ask for more money to fight the crisis.
Italians are learning to live - and die - with high pollution levels.
Medical researchers estimate that in Milan alone - a city of 1.3m people - up to 300 a year die as a result of pollution.
The problem has been steadily building over the past few weeks and shows no sign of going away.
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The third sentence of the above has two hyphens. I just want to know the meaning of them. I would write the sentence without the hyphens.
1 Italians are learning to live - and die - with high pollution levels.
2 Italians are learning to live and die with high pollution levels.
What is wrong with the (2) sentence?
Environment Minister Altero Matteoli is expected to meet Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to ask for more money to fight the crisis.
Italians are learning to live - and die - with high pollution levels.
Medical researchers estimate that in Milan alone - a city of 1.3m people - up to 300 a year die as a result of pollution.
The problem has been steadily building over the past few weeks and shows no sign of going away.
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The third sentence of the above has two hyphens. I just want to know the meaning of them. I would write the sentence without the hyphens.
1 Italians are learning to live - and die - with high pollution levels.
2 Italians are learning to live and die with high pollution levels.
What is wrong with the (2) sentence?
Top answer
Hello Andrei, These are not hyphens. They are 'paired dashes' (and should be longer than a hyphen) and act in a similar way to a pair of commas or pair of brackets, but create a more emphatic break in the sentence. Your version 2 of the sentence is ok.
- Hello Andrei, These are not hyphens.
- They are 'paired dashes' (and should be longer than a hyphen) and act in a similar way to a pair of commas or pair of brackets, but create a more emphatic break in the sentence.
- Your version 2 of the sentence is ok.
- Version one puts greater emphasis on the 'die' suggesting that the pollution is contributing to deaths.
- Otherwise you could just put live with pollution.
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1 Answers
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Hello Andrei,
These are not hyphens. They are 'paired dashes' (and should be longer than a hyphen) and act in a similar way to a pair of commas or pair of brackets, but create a more emphatic break in the sentence.
Your version 2 of the sentence is ok. Version one puts greater emphasis on the 'die' suggesting that the pollution is contributing to deaths. Otherwise you could
These are not hyphens. They are 'paired dashes' (and should be longer than a hyphen) and act in a similar way to a pair of commas or pair of brackets, but create a more emphatic break in the sentence.
Your version 2 of the sentence is ok. Version one puts greater emphasis on the 'die' suggesting that the pollution is contributing to deaths. Otherwise you could
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