Grammar Rules...

[tabibito]

That is very good to know for the next time I have to write an instruction manual; thank you for that advice.


...And my above reply raises another question that I just thought of: When is it appropriate and inappropriate to use a semicolon to conjoin two sentences? I never could figure that one out.

I'm told that it is improper in American English and proper in British English.

[Teallaura]

That is very good to know for the next time I have to write an instruction manual; thank you for that advice.


...And my above reply raises another question that I just thought of: When is it appropriate and inappropriate to use a semicolon to conjoin two sentences? I never could figure that one out.

When the two are closely related; wherever a comma splice might otherwise occur.

[tabibito]

When the two are closely related; wherever a comma splice might otherwise occur.

Oop! It was the comma splice I was thinking of not a semi-colon.

[Teallaura]

I'm told that it is improper in American English and proper in British English.

Not so, semicolons saved my college English grades.
Americans don't tend to use them as much.

[rogue06]

Which one?

Momma's momma. She was the only one of my grandparents still alive when I was born.

[Cow Poke]

And don't forget - a preposition is a word you should never end a sentence with.

[tabibito]

And don't forget - a preposition is a word you should never end a sentence with.

And avoiding split-infinitives was the kind of nonsense up with which Winston Churchill would not put.
And avoiding ending a sentence with a preposition was something something up with which Winston Churchill would not put.

And “This is the sort of English up with which Winston Churchill would not put.”

I wonder what he really said - or did he say all of them on different occasions?

[Cow Poke]

And avoiding split-infinitives was the kind of nonsense up with which Winston Churchill would not put.

Yes, he most certainly would not!

[tabibito]

But with all that - If a word ends a sentence, it is clearly not a preposition because ... it isn't pre positioned ... it must be something else.

[Teallaura]

Oop! It was the comma splice I was thinking of not a semi-colon.

Ah, sorry, didn't see this. Interesting.