Punctuate the following sentences:

i went into the shop bought a book and talked to the owner

i went into the shop talked to the owner and i bought a book

I went into the shop, bought a book and talked to the owner.

I went into the shop, talked to the owner and bought a book.


No need for two I's in the second line.

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I have lots of spare commas looking for a good home, Colin. Just let me know where you want them delivered :)

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And may I ask what book you bought?

Yes, I'd do the same, and cut the second I.

Only I'd buy about six books - don't seem to be able to help myself

Emma

You can't cut the second "I" - that's cheating!

Well I can't make it read well without. Luisa will know the proper terminology for why not.

Emma

"I went into the shop, talked to the owner... and I bought a book!"

How about this? Leaves in the second 'I' but it's no longer redundant.

Rosy

Yes, that works, clever Rosy.

Emma

Rosy's works - if it was an edgy moment in a teen thriller, especially if it was a tad more horrific: "I went into the shop, talked to the owner... and he was dead!" but not really suitable for a fairly mundane sentence.

I'll leave it open for another hour or so. It was inspired partly by a thread that came up a couple of weeks back.

Colin

But you see, Colin, in my version the narrator has been going into this shop every day for a month, trying to pluck up the courage to buy something. A couple of times previously, she has got as far as smiling hopefully at the owner, but has never dared engage him in conversation, let alone so much as hint at actually purchasing any of the merchandise.



Rosy

Yeah, there's that sense of surprise achievement

The answer is boringly nerdy - at least I think so. I'm often wrong on these things, but thought I'd give it a go anyway. I used two similar examples in the hope of making the second feel like the first, when it's really much more complicated. It all comes from the post we had on use of commas a couple of weeks back. The first sentence is simply a list:

I went into the shop, bought a book and talked to the owner.

but the second is two sentences patched together:

I went into the shop, talked to the owner. I bought a book.

The first comma is a gapping comma, (what we think of as a pause comma) replacing the need to repeat "I". To link the two, we can't just use "and", because it's a compound sentence, so we have to use another comma.

I went into the shop, talked to the owner, and I bought a book.

That's the way I read it, and I could be wrong - but am I right in thinking that in a compound sentence the conjunction must be preceded by a comma?

Colin M

My versions are:

"I went into the shop, bought a book, and talked to the owner."

Officially the second comma isn't needed but in this case I'd use an Oxford comma as it seems to make the sentence easier to read.

"I went into the shop, talked to the owner, and I bought a book."

On this case the second comma is needed because of the I, but it does imply that the reason for the book shop visit was talking to the owner, with the buying of a book being rather unexpected.

"I went into the shop, talked to the owner. I bought a book."

I don't think this is grammatically correct as I feel a conjunction is needed in the first sentence otherwise it's a comma splice. The correct version of this would surely be:

"I went into the shop, and talked to the owner. I bought a book."

However, I'm not someone who thinks grammar 'rules' should always be applied strictly. It depends on context. In the right context an ungrammatical sentence can work well. In the wrong context it can be a glaring error. Which is why "is this sentence right" questions can be very tricky to answer.

It wasn't until I split the sentences in that reply that I suddenly though, "feck, that looks wrong" about that first sentence, simply because I would never write it like that. Much smoother with the "and".

I rember being at school in first year juniors when they brought commas in. You would have a list of things, like "I went to the shop and bought a pen and a clock and a ruler and a pencil and a packet of crisps" and suddenly there would be a "woof woof" at the door. The door would burst open and in would come the "And-eater" which would bite up the "and"s and spit out a comma.