telephone line faults

[Eric Nelson]

Is this another case where Americans and Brits are divided by a common language? When I was at school and admittedly that's a very long time ago, I learnt...

I'm not sure about the comma thing, but your use of the word "learnt" is definitely a British thing. We would use the word "learned"...



-Eric

 

[RMA]

As far as I'm aware, both can be used interchangeably in British English, however, in written English you have to use the context to identify the difference between "learned" as in past tense, and "learned" with the different stress, meaning well-educated, so I prefer to use "learnt" for the past tense.

Like I said, I'm a pedant at heart!

 

[darrenj]

Is this another case where Americans and Brits are divided by a common language? When I was at school and admittedly that's a very long time ago, I learnt that in such cases there was no comma before the "and". I've been living in Germany for getting on for 20 years now, so that if this has changed it escaped my notice.

Anybody got a wife (or friend, acquaintance, etc.) who's an English teacher? I'd be interested to know which is correct - I'm afraid I'm a pedant at heart!

I was schooled in England and was taught the same thing!..But then again I didnt do so well in English!!

 

[OkiePC]

In Oklahoma "Learnt" is a verb meaning "taught"

"He learnt me how to clean catfish"

LOL

We have lots of other redneck specialty words here one of my favorites:
"Jeetyet?" (Did you eat yet?)

 

[MarkTTU]

Is this another case where Americans and Brits are divided by a common language? When I was at school and admittedly that's a very long time ago, I learnt that in such cases there was no comma before the "and".

Brits don't use a comma in front of AND anymore, but on this side of the pond we're still taught to use it. I say anymore because if you go back 100-200 years the Brits did use a comma there; it has simply fallen out of fashion in today's world.

For a GREAT book about syntax/punctuation check out Eats, Shoots, and Leaves. My boss put me on to it about 4 months ago and I can honestly say it was both insightful and funny; all in all it was a very good read and worth the time.

I'll also throw in that I'm one of the world's worst on punctuation (and spelling), BUT that there is a point where communication ceases without them.

The first post, in my opinion, was so horribly written that it did not communicate the author's thoughts, or at best mis-communicated the author's thoughts.

 

[brucechase]

My child is in 3rd grade and she is being taught that you DON'T use a comma before and. I made her get several wrong before the teacher wrote me a note.

 

[rgurin]

Comma, or no comma

Brits don't use a comma in front of AND anymore, but on this side of the pond we're still taught to use it. I say anymore because if you go back 100-200 years the Brits did use a comma there; it has simply fallen out of fashion in today's world.

For a GREAT book about syntax/punctuation check out Eats, Shoots, and Leaves. My boss put me on to it about 4 months ago and I can honestly say it was both insightful and funny; all in all it was a very good read and worth the time.

I'll also throw in that I'm one of the world's worst on punctuation (and spelling), BUT that there is a point where communication ceases without them.

The first post, in my opinion, was so horribly written that it did not communicate the author's thoughts, or at best mis-communicated the author's thoughts.

There are differences in opinion about this still in the US. I've had a foot in both worlds (I'm a journalism major who now develops technical training...) When I'm wearing my journalism cap, I delete the comma before "and". When I'm in English composition mode, I include the comma.

I guess the correct answer to this dilemma is "Yes!"

Rick

 

[MarkTTU]

My child is in 3rd grade and she is being taught that you DON'T use a comma before and. I made her get several wrong before the teacher wrote me a note.

Don't ya'll just love english? It's always changing... I remember getting marked off for punctuation on a paper in high school; it didn't matter how many books I showed the teacher that said I was right she had just as many that said I was wrong. In the end we split the difference in the grade and I use punctuation that was acceptable to her for the rest of the year.

I think the point still remains though; punctuation can make or break written communication...

Eats, shoots, and leaves. (Someone ate something, shot something, and left)

Eats shoots and leaves. (Someone ate shoots and ate leaves, possibly a salad, but they did not go anywhere or shoot anything).

 

[RMA]

Well we seem to have well and truly hijacked this Thread, guess that's what happens if you overdo things with current texting babble.

I must try and dig up that book though Mark it sounds interesting. Funnily enough, at school English was my best subject, closely followed by German. At the bottom of the list was Maths! How I ever finished up becoming an engineer is still a bit of a mystery!

 

[darren.s]

I must of missed the point here i thought this was a site were people helped each other out.

not ***** about spelling and gramma!.....................

 

[DanielCamacho]

Yes.... but....

I must of missed the point here i thought this was a site were people helped each other out.

not ***** about spelling and gramma!.....................

What PLC/automation does he need help with exactly????

 

[darren.s]

i get your point! but im just not into shooting people down.

 

[MarkTTU]

It may be a bit of a rub, but I wouldn't say shooting down. There are several responses to what his real problem probably is and how to fix it correctly. Brand new outdoor/plenum rated CAT5 or shielded CAT5 will probably fix his telephone woes.

My points are more along the communications edge; if we can't understand or have difficulty understanding the question its very hard to give a good response. Also if WayNews does design an industrial control system I'm not sure I want to interpret what he puts on the touch screen(s), displays, labels, buttons, manuals, etc... I hope that he simply dropped into the SMS/TXT jargon because this is a forum and a pretty casual one, but....

 

[RMA]

I don't think anybody was really trying to shoot anybody down. I think things went off at a bit of a tangent for a while because I and a few others are interested enough in getting things right - whether in a PLC program or in English grammar - that some interesting basic questions got followed up.

Had waynews turned up with follow-up questions, things would no doubt have got back on topic very quickly.

 

[darren.s]

its a downfall of mine maybe ill keep my opinions to myself in future