Question English buffs, help! (Read 935 times)

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I was arguing with a friend regarding a billboard lacking grammar because I'm a fucking nerd. I'm curious as to which punctuation marks would make the following sentence grammatically correct?:

God's finest creation a baby!

I said that the following are valid grammatical sentences:

God's finest creation: a baby!
God's finest creation — a baby!

He said the following were valid:

God's finest creation; a baby!
God's finest creation — a baby!

He texted his girlfriend, and she said only

God's finest creation; a baby!

was valid.

Who is right, and more importantly how badly are America's school systems failing when people believe this is the place for a semicolon?
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well its not a sentence to begin with, because theres no verb, so grammar seems a little moot.
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God's finest creation: a baby! (right)
God's finest creation — a baby! (also right)
God's finest creation; a baby! (wrong. semicolons are placed in between two independent clauses)

well its not a sentence to begin with, because theres no verb, so grammar seems a little moot.

the verb (is) is implied with either the colon or the dash, in this case.
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Wow I suppose I hadn't thought of that. I mean I knew that... it's so primary and how could I have overlooked that?... man.

Suppose it said "God's finest creation is a baby!" Well. I suppose that would need no grammar adjustment as that's already a complete sentence... right?

EDIT: Ahh, Pasty sort of beat me to it.
Last Edit: March 17, 2010, 02:49:24 am by Mama Luigi
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Pasty is correct. I wanted to be the one to post here, I wanted to be the english buff!!
Next time Rajew....next time...
don't mind me, just postin' after a few brewskies
somebody’s Barkley --- could be another’s Monopolo.
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It's more of an implied "THAT IS"
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"God's finest creation? A baby!" is a different way to say it but mostly in spoken English; it's clumsy in written English

remember that these rules can be bent for literary effect! (a whole different ball game)
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IT IS TIME FOR FAUSTY TO STEAL THE STAGE MAYBE!?!?

I actually teach English at a secondary school over here in the U.K. (alongside History, Media Studies and OH NO PSHE!!!) Maybe I can ASSIST!

Quote
God's finest creation; a baby!

This is totally wrong. A semicolon links two sentences, neither of which are dependent on the other to make sense. "God's finest creation: a baby!" would be correct, due to the fact that the latter section is dependent on the former.

A hyphen would also be fine in this context, but NEVER A SEMICOLON!!

...Although on reading your post a second time, I've come to realise that you already knew this. Either way, consider it clarification that your friend and his girlfriend are perverts and foreigners.
Hey hey hey
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Do you mean a dash faust? I don't think a hyphen would ever be fine there. Freakin english teachers huh!!
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I remember one time, an English teacher in high school told me this sage advice:
"NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER use a semicolon. None of you will EVER know how to use one correctly. Except [Rajew]. But he's a nerd."

And this is when I learned I went to the best high school.
Also! Faust I wanted to teach English but for some reason I'm going to school for Computer Science instead; You're a lucky man!
(watch as I use it embarrassingly wrong)
don't mind me, just postin' after a few brewskies
somebody’s Barkley --- could be another’s Monopolo.
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I agree with Mama Luigi's assessment; he's the only one who's correct.
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Quote
Do you mean a dash faust? I don't think a hyphen would ever be fine there. Freakin english teachers huh!!

Fuck calling it a 'dash'. That makes it sound like it is A RUSHED AND BOTCHED JOB. I do not approve of this "dash".

Quote
Faust I wanted to teach English but for some reason I'm going to school for Computer Science instead; You're a lucky man!

Diagnosis: CORRECT! You'd be well on your way to a juicy A-grade here. I only have a few students who can use a semicolon correctly, which is not a surprise considering that the majority of the adult population in this country don't understand the simple apostrophe.

Hey hey hey
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FUCK, I just had a look at dashes and hyphens and apparently they're different things.

I AM THE SHITTEST TEACHER IN THE WORLD! I've been forcing my groups to call them hyphens...but then again, so have some of my colleagues.

DIAGNOSIS: FAILURE.

...Although, to be fair, no one at school will ever challenge me on it so PRESTIGE PRESERVED!!
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Welcome to Faust's English Class! Today we'll be learning about "XD" as punctuation!
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faust you should pick up on it in the staff room and earn extra brownie points
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God's finest creation, a baby!

that works perfectly well without all this colon bullshit
www.jmickle.com
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not on its own
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a comma, semicolon, and colon would all be incorrect. it's saddening that many people don't know how to use a semicolon properly; i think they're a wonderful piece of punctuation. by the way, rajew, you don't capitalize the first word after a semicolon; it should be lowercase, like this. i love grammar (although lol slack grammatical style on forums of course).
semper games.
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please explain why a colon would be wrong!
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here's Quentin Tarantino giving an interview in a Wu Wear hoodie and backwards hat