In a comma
If I’ve seen it once, I’ve seen it a thousand times. I’m referring to a student’s writing a sentence like:
I went to see the movie, “Midnight in Paris” with my friend, Jessie.
Comma after “movie,” comma after “friend” and, sometimes, comma after “Paris” as well. None is correct — unless “Midnight in Paris” is the only movie in the world and Jessie is the writer’s only friend. Otherwise, the punctuation should be:
I went to see the movie “Midnight in Paris” with my friend Jessie.
If that seems wrong or weird or anything short of clearly right, bear with me a minute and take a look at another correct sentence:
I went to see Woody Allen’s latest movie, “Midnight in Paris,” with my oldest friend, Jessie.
You need a comma after “movie” because this and only this is Mr. Allen’s newest movie in theaters, and before “Jessie” because she and only she is the writer’s oldest friend.
Read The Most Comma Mistakes by Ben Yagoda in the NYT.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
May 24th, 2012 at 10:24
One of my friends in IT told me this funny story. This guy was trying to instruct his teammate who doesn’t know how to end a computer program.
Guy: Type mo lang ‘quit’.
Teammate (clacks on keyboard): Ayaw gumana eh.
Guy: Panong ayaw gumana?
Guy checks Teammate’s computer screen and sees a comma.
*facepalm*
May 27th, 2012 at 07:20
bigla naman akong napaisip… parehas din kaya ang panuntunan sa pag-gamit ng kuwit sa wikang Filipino sa wikang Ingles? hmm…