BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / Fan Fiction Addicts General Round Table Discusion - ADULT CONTENT

**Posted by Schmiezi** December 21, 2014 7:48 pm

Well, German commas are one of the few things that are logical. At least if you know the grammar behind the rule.
But then, that might be the German teacher in me speaking.

**Posted by silverblaze** December 21, 2014 7:57 pm

Schmiezi wrote:
At least if you know the grammar behind the rule.

I think you may have identified my problem there, Schmiezi.

**Posted by Schmiezi** December 21, 2014 8:01 pm

silverblaze wrote:
Schmiezi wrote:
At least if you know the grammar behind the rule.
I think you may have identified my problem there, Schmiezi.

That was my inner teacher speaking.

**Posted by ancientsgate** December 21, 2014 9:09 pm

Schmiezi wrote:
My wonderful new beta is Canadian, and she explained some of the punctuation rules to me. General rules, not just about dialogue. She also pointed out that some of the rules contradict each other. It left me more confused than before.

Oh? Can you remember what she said was a contradiction? I don't know about this, I think.

**Posted by ancientsgate** December 21, 2014 9:14 pm

silverblaze wrote:
Well, it's helpful for me. AG might just not be aware of the fact that interpunction is different across languages and often quite counterintuitive. I remember learning to write letters in German at school; at first I thought it'd be easy, our languages have a simiar structure etcetera. Turned out I had pretty much all the commas wrong. You Germans, you just love your commas, don't you?

Funny, I had just finished my secret santa fic when I realised I didn't really know whether to use single quotes or double quotes (I'd seen both). Really happy to see that single quotes are also ok, I wasn't going to redo all the quotation marks!

The em dash is new for me, though. I don't even think it's on my computer and I can't think of ever reading it in a book. Is it perhaps an American thing? Maybe I just read over it without ever seeing it, interpunction tends to work that way.

WTH is interpunction? I'm all ears.

**Posted by SusiGo** December 21, 2014 9:21 pm

Maybe punctuation?

**Posted by ancientsgate** December 21, 2014 9:40 pm

Harriet wrote:
Ancientsgate, do you think my post wasn't helpful or necessary? Do you think it's of no interest for people here?

I think anything that tries to teach people how to write better is of interest anyplace where writers and readers hang out. I was just putting in my two cents, that punctuation rules are barely taught anymore, and not only that, they're taught way back in school, to 8, 9, 10 year olds, who then quickly forget what they were taught. Fast forward 20+ years, when suddenly someone finds they want to write stories for others to read, but they lack the skills to make it readable. At that time, it'll be necessary to relearn what they were taught back in the day and then promptly forgot. Ivy's small primer was a good review, for sure.

**Posted by ancientsgate** December 21, 2014 9:45 pm

SusiGo wrote:
Maybe punctuation?

I went to google and looked, and apparently interpunction is the same as punctuation? Is it punctuation in another language or something? I've never heard of interpunction. I thought it was something new, lol, but I guess not.

**Posted by tonnaree** December 21, 2014 9:50 pm

We add an adult content warning to the thread and we're talking about punctuation.
I'm so disappointed in you ladies.

**Posted by SusiGo** December 21, 2014 9:51 pm

It just means putting your commas in the right place, I suppose. Which I find difficult in English because the rules are quite different from German. Therefore I am grateful for having Davina as a native-speaking beta reader if needed.

**Posted by Harriet** December 21, 2014 10:01 pm

tonnaree wrote:
We add an adult content warning to the thread and we're talking about punctuation.
I'm so disappointed in you ladies.

The most boring of all p-words.... I'm so sorry, tonnaree, my fault

**Posted by Wholocked** December 21, 2014 10:10 pm

silverblaze wrote:
The em dash is new for me, though. I don't even think it's on my computer and I can't think of ever reading it in a book. Is it perhaps an American thing? Maybe I just read over it without ever seeing it, interpunction tends to work that way.

I have to use ALT+0151 to get em-dash but they are super useful!

**Posted by SusiGo** December 21, 2014 10:10 pm

Sorry, tonnaree. Feel free to add a bit of adult content.

**Posted by tonnaree** December 21, 2014 10:15 pm

*yells*

PENIS!

*runs away giggling*

**Posted by Harriet** December 21, 2014 10:19 pm

Phew! I thought you would say something really naughty!

**Posted by SusiGo** December 21, 2014 10:26 pm

She is still warming up, I suppose.

**Posted by silverblaze** December 21, 2014 10:43 pm

Is interpunction not English? Maybe it's a Dutchism. I'll go and check.

@Tonnaree: No warning is big enough when you talk about punctuation. Schoolkids all over the world agree that it's a topic from hell.

**Posted by silverblaze** December 21, 2014 10:51 pm

Back from factchecking: interpunction is English. AG could've worked that out but anyway. Thing about the English language, it often has a few words that have exactly the same meaning but a different root language. Although in this case both words sound very Latin to me.

Speaking of Latin: PENIS

Runs to join Tonnaree

**Posted by stoertebeker** December 21, 2014 10:52 pm

silverblaze wrote:
Schoolkids all over the world agree that it's a topic from hell.

I thought that's usually maths, isn't it?

Last edited by stoertebeker (December 21, 2014 10:53 pm)

**Posted by Harriet** December 21, 2014 11:03 pm

silverblaze wrote:
Back from factchecking: interpunction is English. AG could've worked that out but anyway. Thing about the English language, it often has a few words that have exactly the same meaning but a different root language. Although in this case both words sound very Latin to me.

Speaking of Latin: PENIS

Runs to join Tonnaree

Well, my two dictionaries don't list interpunction, only punctuation. Just saying. Also the spell check here doesn't recognize it.