One or Two Sentences
My question is about an old puzzle that appears on Wikipedia here ().
Basically it asks how to punctuate a group of words that are a single sentence :
James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher
The solution is :
James, while John had had "had", had had "had had"; "had had" had had a better effect on the teacher.
My belief is that the use of a semi-colon in this case is incorrect and a full-stop is required, but my skills are not so complete I can say for sure. I'd be interested in any arguments on the matter - pro or con.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
-Adrian Bell.
Top answer
The semicolon is fine. If the eighth 'had' had been capitalised, a full stop before it would have been necessary.
- The semicolon is fine.
- If the eighth 'had' had been capitalised, a full stop before it would have been necessary.
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The semicolon is fine.
If the eighth 'had' had been capitalised, a full stop before it would have been necessary.
0Thanks for your response.
I was rather hoping for arguments or reasoning to support having a semicolon make sense, or otherwise, as it doesn't seem to as far as the grammatical rules I understand go. Also, I'm clear that capital letters usually follow fullstops, in as much as the end of one sentence would be followed by a new sentence. However, I'm sure we both understand that to be
0
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