I left school, at 13. My parents didn't drink and didn't comprehend the value of a good education to step above the poverty which was rife in Ireland. I struggled for years, thinking I was tick as muck. And when i got married and had a family, i was determine to prepared my chrilden for a third level education to find great jobs in Ireland. I broke the cycle. And my loving parents who without knowing, gave me a valuable lesson going forward.
As a seventy-six year old Englishman, with a lifetime using the language I found your video a wake-up call regarding my, over the years, failure to use colons and semi-colons in text, I have a GCE in English language but have obviously got lazy over my lifetime, thank you for the heads-up!
I also don't feel it is necessary to critique every single error a person makes in their comments. I have been a teacher for over 10 years, and I believe it is more important to encourage learning and practice than to discourage at every opportunity. You're doing great, John!
@@SparkleEnglish Thank you for your kind comment, I have found in my lifetime that there are pedants in all walks of life so comments from others do not phase me at all, they enjoy their "error spotting" and good luck to them, it gives them a sense of superiority perhaps? I tend to concentrate on more important things at my age, such as keeping breathing lol, nice site though, and very useful to many I am sure., keep up the good work!
@@Hunkamunka I love your mindset. It's a very healthy one to have! Maybe these people should take up yoga and meditation instead of trolling an English channel. 😂
As a twenty-two year old, i wanna thank you for this video! You really are an amazing teacher; You have an easy way of explaining. There are a lot of things that i've learned from this video: how to use colon, semicolon, comma and etc. Thank you and keep up the good work!
This is great! My mother was a virtual grammarian with a linguistics degree. I learned basic grammar by being constantly corrected by mom, (Thanks mom!😊). Your explanations are easy to understand and you have a pleasing voice.
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:28 📝 Every declarative sentence must end with a period or full stop. 01:26 📝 Capitalize the first letter of a sentence. 02:47 📝 Capitalize proper nouns, which are specific names for common nouns. 03:44 📝 Do not use an apostrophe to form a plural. 04:41 📝 Apostrophes are used for contractions or to show possession. 05:38 📝 Every question or interrogative sentence must end with a question mark. 06:07 📝 Use an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence to express excitement, strong emotion, or a sense of urgency. 07:32 📝 Use commas to separate items in a series of three or more things. 08:32 📝 Use a comma to separate independent clauses when joined by specific conjunctions. 10:18 📝 Use a semicolon between closely related independent clauses. 11:22 📝 Use a colon to introduce a list of items. 11:54 📝 Use a hyphen to join two or more words serving as a single adjective before a noun. 12:57 📝 Use a hyphen with compound numbers between 21 and 99. Made with HARPA AI
This is great! Simple and concise rules with examples. I’m a 50yr old college graduate, but never felt I fully understood basic English grammar because the rules seemed vague. Thank you!
We were taught to leave two spaces after the period, question mark, etc. at the end of a sentence. Words in sentences are separated by one space, sentences are separated by two spaces. It's just the way we were taught and I personally like it, so I'm sharing.
Yes, but online added an extra space between sentences could mean dropping an important descriptive word needed in the paragraph. I found sometimes every space counts. It determines my selection of vocabulary to be used.
As someone who writes technical documents frequently for my job, it drives me bonkers when Boomers do this. I have hundreds of pages using only one space, and they'll edit one paragraph using two spaces after a sentence without considering the rest of the document doesn't have it. This method is outdated.
Thank you so much for this. Interacting with people for many years, who don't appreciate using grammar or punctuation correctly, has put me in a tough spot, and my English seems to be deteriorating because of it. Your videos helps me a lot.
Thank you for making these grammar rules so clear. I have gaps in my education due to changing schools a lot while growing up. Also, I had severe asthma until I was in my teens. This caused me to miss many days. You have filled in some of those gaps.
You're welcome. I have always had confusion and doubts about my writing abilities. Thanks to your channel many of those have been cleared up. Please keep posting your work.
I'm a generally great communicator, but my writing is super strangely organized. I aspire to be a writer someday, and the explicitly laid-out quality of the information in the video is excellent. It sincerely helps.
As a non-native speaker, I'm currently studying English 12 again after dropping out of school 10 years ago. This has been the best refresher I could've come across. Thank you so much for this tutorial!
I got 7 correct.. The video was greatly helpful. I've struggled with comma and semi colon for a while now but this video helped clarify things. Thank you
I have a 3rd grade education. I just come across your channel and I am so excited! I want to learn to write, spell, and express myself in writing properly. Thank you so much!!!
Having tutored English grammar for 15 years, I am thrilled to discover your channel. The English language is no longer taught in many, if not most, public school in America. As a result, the majority of Americans are functionally illiterate with reading levels below 8th grade with schools and colleges contorting themselves to accommodate instead of confronting and correcting this widespread illiteracy. To further complicate matters, students expect to be allowed to fail and do not have the study skills to learn and develop their intellects. Consequently, Americans graduate high school “on the regular” illiterate. I hope your channel becomes widespread and widely viewed as Americans from small business owners to attorneys to journalists to newscasters wouldn’t know a past participle from a hole in the ground and speak as though they have never been told that adverbs exist. Drilling irregular verbs is apparently also a lost art and “I have ran” is more widespread then we care to believe. Of course, the more ignorant Americans are, the happier are the oligarchs, special interest owners and elite who own and operate this so-called democracy. That a democracy cannot be sustained with an illiterate electorate is only a foreign concept to the illiterate electorate.
They have known since the 1970s, since studying moon rock, that the Earth is hitting a 12,000 year cycle of severe solar events. It was the same timeframe that alteration in academic studies began. Foreign Languages, History, Government, Advanced Algebra, Chemistry, Physics, English and Literature began their exit from high school Curriculum. In the past 30 years, I have seen in the workplace, the damage this has done. No longer is the brain challenged, no longer are young adults able to memorize, absorb, large amounts of information to complete a job, work out formularies or other complicated tasks. I taught thru the 1980s, even at college level. These young adults could not formulate complex sentences much less incorporate them in a paragraph to answer essay exams. It is appalling how ignorant they are today. They want high paying jobs but are unwilling to do the work necessary to achieve those objectives. We as a nation are backsliding. Our Departments of Education have been behind a lot of the reasons why. From the Federal, to State Depts. of Education, and local School Boards, important curriculum subjects have been slashed to hire coaches of every type imaginable, to the detriment of creating intelligent, creative adults cognizant of what’s required to problem solve in today’s world. Government elites planned this well in advance to ensure a nation of adults who do not read anything but the Sports Page in their local newspapers, if they even read those at all. I had no problem when I taught school, demanding quality work. It was either do it or receive a D or F for a grade. Nowadays, all you get in response from them is “whatever.” We are running out of time. Only the extremely intelligent with survival skills will survive what is coming. The Feds were aware a half century ago of what the sun was going to do and set in place actions that will guarantee the demise of 2/3 of our population. One politician in Texas, some 5-6 yrs ago, even suggested we seniors be willing to die to save only the young. I assume he meant anyone over 50 should die by suicide, or be executed. This also included the disabled and mentally challenged. How sad that this world is destined to be destroyed and disappear with only a whimper. We are desperately in need of a renaissance .
Well, since we should and need to be in the business of correcting wrongs, maybe a good place to start would be with the fact that the USA is a Republic and not a democracy, and understanding why there’s a huge difference. I challenge anyone to show the word democracy within any of our 51 Constitutions. Our founders went to great lengths to ensure we’d never be a democracy. It’s been said that in a democracy you have the privilege of voting for your rulers, but in a Republic you have the GOD granted inherent, inalienable, indefeasible, indubitable right to elect your servants. 🙏🇺🇸! ✌🏻
Thank you so much for this video. I am a native English speaker and often struggle with punctuation rules. I need to understand 'why' the rule is this and not that. So far your video's have been a great help! I am even using what I learnt from this video to write this comment!
This video was so easy to understand and watch. I am currently studying for the Lieutenants exam and I need to brush up on my grammar and report writing. Thank you so much for sharing your gift with the world. 👍🏽👏🏽
I just came across your channel. You did a great job. I could listen, and watch you all day. I'm about to start an English class, so I need all the practice I can get.
Thanks for your valuable lessons. I'm seventy - five years old, and still learning English whenever I have the chance. Hope to receive more lessons from you, and a million thanks!
I find it useful when teaching contractions to write the two words on paper, then fold back the letters that can’t be seen when the apostrophe takes their place. We use coloured card and make a display with the examples the students. There are very few exceptions that don’t work this way. They’re also able to fold the contraction back out to see what the two words originally were. It’s a good strategy because it teaches visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learners. I believe all activities should take into account these learning styles - not many female students are auditory learners. To find out a students learning style/s google VAK checklist. It’s good to see a very good, basic grammar lesson as so many people, especially younger adults write, “Your a legend” incorrectly instead of, “You’re a legend”. Folding out the missing letters make this clearer. It’s just one of many strategies I use - it’s very clear.
Thank you for your video tutorial. I have now started to follow your lessons and explanations. I must admit seeing a video is a lot easier to understand than reading examples that don't clarify learning. With my limited budget UA-cam is basically my only reliable source for learning without guessing.
You are one of the best tutors, I have come across watching the videos on commas. You made it very easy to understand. I would like to watch all your upcoming videos. Thank you.
I was probably taught these rules at some point in my education. Lord knows I've been in the system long enough. But it was interesting to see what I do without thinking, that is, what I may have learned by rote, expressed as a clear set of rules. It's also interesting to note the differences between English punctuation and other languages. French, German, and Russian all have variations on some of these.
17:07 I got 8/8. I am Brazilian, and I taught English myself, just copying the 12 books of a British English course my mother had back in the 70s. I used to listen to cassette disks to get used to the pronunciation. I am better at writing than speaking, but I am weak at using prepositions in sentences. Thanks so much for your video.
I want to thank you for this video! You are truly an amazing teacher; You have an easy way to explain. There are many things I learned from this video: how to use colons, semicolons, commas, and others. Thanks and keep up the good work! Always success, I wish you good health and a long life
Thank you so much. I've just started working as a transcriptionist, & need to brush up on punctuation. Your clear presentation & format is splendid. Then there are vids on each punctuation mark 🤗 Girl, you're too cool.
OUTSTANDING! I particularly like that you endorse the use of the Oxford comma. It would appear you also prefer a single space after full stops. I am old school in that regard (habitual double spacer). Have you done a video on the use of semicolons as complex list separators?
Number 8 cleared up some recent confusion for me. I was always taught to add the comma before the conjunction (i.e. what you called the Oxford comma) but I've seen writings in the past few years where people have omitted it. I didn't know that it was now considered optional. Regardless I agree with you that it should always be used. Thanks.
Same here. I always used the Oxford comma, but also always questioned my use of it. Furthermore, I'm a little intimidated posting comments on this English Writing Essentials Series, lest I expose my English writing shortcomings. 😏
I never used the Oxford comma. I never thought it was correct because it seems redundant in conversational English because the "and" is there in tell you this the last item in the list. I'm pretty sure I learned that in grammar school.
@@jeffmuller1489 Yes. We were taught at school that a comma should not be placed before the "and". This was 50 years ago.. Maybe it's an American thing as in The UK I've never seen it used?
Bravo for providing an important service. As a 68 yr old I appreciate good english - but I fear that this is already a lost art. With cell phones being the rule now, we've lost the art of writing full sentences much less a paragraph. I'm horrified at the lack of grammar or sentence structure that I see in media!
First of all, thank you for this video. I have some questions/notes on a couple of things you mentioned. 1) regarding apostrophes: when people say that the apostrophe is used "to express possession", it's actually an imprecise statement. The apostrophe is used to show there is a letter missing in the Saxon Genitive, which was an "e" that was never pronounced. The Saxon Genitive ('s) shows possession; the apostrophe shows there is a letter missing. 2) Now we reach the serious subject of the Oxford Comma. *deep sigh of resignation° I was taught that that final "and" in a sequence of three should never be preceded by a comma; the comma would only be placed when the conjunction "and" had the function of introducing a final result at the end of a sentence or at the end of an entire paragraph. In creative writing at times, we use an "em-dash" instead of a comma. I am aware this is probably no longer taught in schools. 3)This leads to the next point, which is placing a comma before coordinate conjunctions. Nowadays, a lot of people do exactly what you said because, in some contexts, this is needed to help regulate the flow of reading a speech; however, this is not always the case. I distinctly remember that in creative writing this was discouraged. In creative writing, you would only do that in direct speech situations where the reading would have to simulate regular expressive speech. 4) You might think about doing another video covering the conventions of using quotation marks in writing direct speech because I find a lot of people don't use this any longer, and it's really difficult to understand what people write at times!
There are so many times I feel as if I am the only person online who cares enough to take the time to type coherently. Thank you for this video and for a very clear description of proper and simple punctuation. I can understand that when using a phone, brevity in typing on a very small keyboard, it might be tempting to "cheat", but communication and punctuation is still important.
I missed the double error, otherwise I got the rest correct. This is actually a great refresher. Thank you very much for doing these lectures. I was just moved up a little in my company and need to up my grammar game a bit.
Important subjects very well explained; you are a good teacher. A little personal note here: reading properly written languages (emphasis in "properly") will improve this kind of information. Today, a lot of people text messages trumping all over the language and create a trendy way of communication; that not only destroy basic grammars rules, but makes it unintelligible. Naively, I though that this kind of trend only happens in English, but I found that it does in any other language as well. You have to see the monstrosities I have to read in Spanish (my first one). Thanks for your amazing classes; keep them coming amiga. Greetings from Toronto.
Aku adalah mahasiswa yang berasal dari indonesia, saya menemukan chanel ini dari tugas kuliah ku, dan sangat membantu sekali, terimakasih untuk ilmunya.
Hello Jennifer. I'm from Brazil and my English for writing is basic, although I can read well beyond the basics. Therefore, I had a doubt. Currently I study English alone, through videos like yours. I usually pause the video and write the sentence suggested by the author of the video in the way I think is correct. So, before I saw the expression "woman with a good heart" in the correct way you taught, I paused the video and wrote as I thought it would be right and I wrote it like this: good-heart woman and not kind-hearted woman. I put the two sentences in Google Translate (I know the tool has limitations) and the translation was the same. My question is: why can't you write like I thought: good-heart woman? What is wrong with this form of writing? Thanks for your reply and I'm learning a lot from your videos. Thanks"
Just a quick answer for you. Good - heart woman just isn't a phrase in English. You could use it but it would be considered odd and not nessecarily be understood. Kind-hearted woman means a woman with a kind-heart, which means she is kind and giving, etc. Good-heart woman could theoretically mean the same, , or the woman has a physicality good heart, or something else dependent on how it is interpreted. Everyone knows the first phrase, and no one knows the second. That is why you use the first. I hope this helps a little. Please excuse the punctuation, this keyboard makes it difficult.
Good job! My exclamation mark means that I’m impressed that you take the time to notice peoples punctuation errors. A contraction would be “Today’s a humid day.” It is complete with a period. On Facebook I see that a lot of people forget to complete the sentence with a period. I’m glad you have a video to fix people’s sentence structures. An Independent Clause completes the whole aspect of a sentence through a coordinating conjunction while the Dependent Clause reverses the direction of the Clause and involves a subordinating conjunction to make sure that the sentence doesn’t attract the thought of the sentence to stand independently. Punctuation Marks/Symbol Meanings: a period completes a sentences conversation and thought. A comma is when a group of words in the sentence are being separated and paused from the continuity of a thought or idea. There’s lots of punctuation’s but that’s what I have for now.
From an elderly British English teacher. I hope this is helpful. Never use a comma before “and”. A semi-colon can be used. Numbers before eleven can be numerical as in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. After that, they are written out in full, as in eleven, etc. If in a financial document, the number may be included in a bracket for further clarity. Do not use a full stop for a title if it ends in the last letter of the word. For example, “Dr Smith” ; “Ms White” or “ Mrs Green” ( originally from ‘Mistress’). “Professor would be Prof. Brown.
Thank you my friend for the excellent tutelage. I was taught the same way for the use of the comma by my fourth grade teacher. It looks much nicer as well in my opinion; the extra comma confuses and muddy's things because you already have "and" making the separation.
I think British writing rules are different from the American ones (not all ofc), but it made me surprised to learn before that British uses ' ' instead of " " in dialogs. Sorry english isn't my first language so i don't know what they are called. 😅
I had 7/8 mistake because I’m not just to used the semicolons. English is my second language and I’m so grateful with your lessons. Thank you very much!
his is great! Simple and concise rules with examples. I’m a 50yr old college graduate, but never felt I fully understood basic English grammar because the rules seemed vague. Thank you!
I'm in enjoying refreshing my memory at fifty-three years old now. I've started writing again, and it's been an amazing thing to complete this refresh course. I managed to get 8/8. I still need to work on my semi-colon use, so I'll do that video too. 😊 Thank you.
I have found a semicolon, and a hyphen use to be a bit challenging. English is not my first non-native language, as I have always felt. In fact, it was officially considered as the first foreign one. The reason was that the second official language in my country was not counted as "foreign", although it felt definitely foreign to me. Apart from that, being taught to read and write English must have created a good basis for the adopting the rules covered by this video. Thanks for confirming my belief! But one error in at least in common American use you did not note, and what disturbs me, was the "it's" and "its" distinction. I assume you either have already covered it, or will do so in the future. A former boss of mine once said: "Why did we need to import this alien to correct us in our use of English language?" It was a joke, but I replied: "Well, but you can correct my pronunciation any time!" As indeed anybody could; my education - reading and writing - skipped, or failed the speaking part.
The Oxford comma is that thing that does not look good, but basically ensures that you are crystal clear as to exactly what you mean. Always a safe option
But why do we have to be redundant; we know that reading the sentence the conjunction "and" already separates the third item, in this case, so why use a comma" Is this to separate the item from"and"?
@@pkicng210 there is an old example where the difference is key. 1.) We invited the strippers, Stalin, and Hitler (meaning you invited three people or more). 2.) We invited the strippers, Stalin and Hitler (you invited two people and both of those people are strippers lol). The redundancy removes all doubt as to exactly what is meant when you encounter the random trickily-worded sentence, at least that’s why I would use it:P
Very pleasing to listen to the instruction, Also, a very calm and evenly spread out little course to follow. It been so long since english class and this video is great to refresh the basics of writing english. Many thanks for the videos and I have subscribed to your channel.
Thank you again . Wow, your english punctuation channel has really improved my english skills. I am so happy with your help. I am learning and want to write a book. I will let you kow the out come I will also look at ordering your book. That would be great you don't know how much you have helped me. Forever grateful to you and your wonderful channel.... Yey..... God bless you..
This is my first video .I always felt difficult to wrote punctuation marks but when I saw you're video before my English exam I got perfect on it thank you so much mam . You're better than my English sir
Order my new 50+ page punctuation rules eBook that accompanies this lesson!
►sparkleenglish.podia.com/basic-punctuation-guide
Rubbish work don’t help anybody
1😊
Thanks ❤
Thanks ❤ love from Pakistan 🇵🇰🇵🇰🇵🇰😊
I am from India and I love the way you teach English. This session on punctuation marks will help in my upcoming exams. Thanx a lot ma'am.
It's so refreshing to find someone who actually knows and practices correct writing!
Yeah i am doing it because i wanna be a book writer or game dev
@@HowdyAleck. Good luck.
Got the whole exercise correct.
@@reverendsarahnyathi6373 yeah!
@@HowdyAleck. Hows you progress so far? Its been 7 months.
I left school, at 13. My parents didn't drink and didn't comprehend the value of a good education to step above the poverty which was rife in Ireland. I struggled for years, thinking I was tick as muck. And when i got married and had a family, i was determine to prepared my chrilden for a third level education to find great jobs in Ireland. I broke the cycle. And my loving parents who without knowing, gave me a valuable lesson going forward.
🥰🦸♀️👩❤️💋👨👄👄👄💕🐵😳😘😘😍😍😍💋💋💋💋❤️❤️😘😍😝😘😘😘💋💋😍😍😍😘👄👄👄👄🏳️⚧️💄😚👄🧊💧🥶👔🌈
Baby.!😳
That so good
You must be taking the piss.
@@Anita-sv5gvWhat
A lot of people who write comments on UA-cam need this podcast!
Yes . Your wright. Its said too see so many that missed out on a good eduction,
😅😅!! Comment's!!! 😂😂😂 !!
Jk
The overwhelming urge to correct anyone who uses Your instead of You're. 😭
@@p1glep 😂
You are remarkably clear; and, even as a native speaker, I found this refresher really useful. Thank you.
Excellent. I don’t know what I was doing in school . I learned nothing about this from my teachers but got it here first time. ! Thank you.
As a seventy-six year old Englishman, with a lifetime using the language I found your video a wake-up call regarding my, over the years, failure to use colons and semi-colons in text, I have a GCE in English language but have obviously got lazy over my lifetime, thank you for the heads-up!
@@iconoclad Possibly did, it happens at my age lol.
I am not a fan of belittling people who are making efforts to improve their English levels.
I also don't feel it is necessary to critique every single error a person makes in their comments. I have been a teacher for over 10 years, and I believe it is more important to encourage learning and practice than to discourage at every opportunity. You're doing great, John!
@@SparkleEnglish Thank you for your kind comment, I have found in my lifetime that there are pedants in all walks of life so comments from others do not phase me at all, they enjoy their "error spotting" and good luck to them, it gives them a sense of superiority perhaps? I tend to concentrate on more important things at my age, such as keeping breathing lol, nice site though, and very useful to many I am sure., keep up the good work!
@@Hunkamunka I love your mindset. It's a very healthy one to have! Maybe these people should take up yoga and meditation instead of trolling an English channel. 😂
As a twenty-two year old, i wanna thank you for this video! You really are an amazing teacher; You have an easy way of explaining. There are a lot of things that i've learned from this video: how to use colon, semicolon, comma and etc. Thank you and keep up the good work!
You are so sweet. Thank you for your kind words!
I believe you meant "I want to thank you for this video!" Not I "wanna". I believe that's known as "Ebonics English"
“Wanna!”
Excellent teacher! Thank you for reminding me about my punctuation. I'm a little rusty at times.
You are really the best teacher , your course is obvious .
This is great! My mother was a virtual grammarian with a linguistics degree. I learned basic grammar by being constantly corrected by mom, (Thanks mom!😊). Your explanations are easy to understand and you have a pleasing voice.
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:
00:28 📝 Every declarative sentence must end with a period or full stop.
01:26 📝 Capitalize the first letter of a sentence.
02:47 📝 Capitalize proper nouns, which are specific names for common nouns.
03:44 📝 Do not use an apostrophe to form a plural.
04:41 📝 Apostrophes are used for contractions or to show possession.
05:38 📝 Every question or interrogative sentence must end with a question mark.
06:07 📝 Use an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence to express excitement, strong emotion, or a sense of urgency.
07:32 📝 Use commas to separate items in a series of three or more things.
08:32 📝 Use a comma to separate independent clauses when joined by specific conjunctions.
10:18 📝 Use a semicolon between closely related independent clauses.
11:22 📝 Use a colon to introduce a list of items.
11:54 📝 Use a hyphen to join two or more words serving as a single adjective before a noun.
12:57 📝 Use a hyphen with compound numbers between 21 and 99.
Made with HARPA AI
i love you
how did you use ai and make it with time stamps
This is great! Simple and concise rules with examples. I’m a 50yr old college graduate, but never felt I fully understood basic English grammar because the rules seemed vague. Thank you!
You are so welcome!!
I want to go oooot tonight. Sounds Canadian
If you could do a full series on past, present, and future verbs, I would appreciate it. :3
ua-cam.com/video/fqfNM0rCoOA/v-deo.html
We were taught to leave two spaces after the period, question mark, etc. at the end of a sentence. Words in sentences are separated by one space, sentences are separated by two spaces. It's just the way we were taught and I personally like it, so I'm sharing.
I was taught that as well. However, that is now considered unnecessary because of how computers format text versus typewriters.
Yes, that's a typewriter thing. 😊
Yes, but online added an extra space between sentences could mean dropping an important descriptive word needed in the paragraph. I found sometimes every space counts. It determines my selection of vocabulary to be used.
And it’s funny, on my IPro, if i double space without a person, it puts one there.
As someone who writes technical documents frequently for my job, it drives me bonkers when Boomers do this. I have hundreds of pages using only one space, and they'll edit one paragraph using two spaces after a sentence without considering the rest of the document doesn't have it. This method is outdated.
Thank you so much for this. Interacting with people for many years, who don't appreciate using grammar or punctuation correctly, has put me in a tough spot, and my English seems to be deteriorating because of it. Your videos helps me a lot.
Thank you for making these grammar rules so clear. I have gaps in my education due to changing schools a lot while growing up. Also, I had severe asthma until I was in my teens. This caused me to miss many days. You have filled in some of those gaps.
Well done for taking the time now to study these grammar rules. Thank you for your wonderful comment!
You're welcome.
I have always had confusion and doubts about my writing abilities. Thanks to your channel many of those have been cleared up. Please keep posting your work.
This was so easy to understand.I have been making simple mistakes all my life.This was eye opening.
I'm a generally great communicator, but my writing is super strangely organized. I aspire to be a writer someday, and the explicitly laid-out quality of the information in the video is excellent. It sincerely helps.
I love this video! I taught numbers one through eight to my first-grade students for over 25 years.
Wow! Over 25 years of teaching! Thank you for all your hard work. ☺️
Thanks you so much, SparkleEnglish! You really helped me with using my punctuations properly. May God bless you, ma’am!
As a non-native speaker, I'm currently studying English 12 again after dropping out of school 10 years ago. This has been the best refresher I could've come across. Thank you so much for this tutorial!
I got 7 correct..
The video was greatly helpful. I've struggled with comma and semi colon for a while now but this video helped clarify things. Thank you
I have a 3rd grade education. I just come across your channel and I am so excited! I want to learn to write, spell, and express myself in writing properly.
Thank you so much!!!
I think you said that very well, Bertha.
Having tutored English grammar for 15 years, I am thrilled to discover your channel. The English language is no longer taught in many, if not most, public school in America. As a result, the majority of Americans are functionally illiterate with reading levels below 8th grade with schools and colleges contorting themselves to accommodate instead of confronting and correcting this widespread illiteracy. To further complicate matters, students expect to be allowed to fail and do not have the study skills to learn and develop their intellects. Consequently, Americans graduate high school “on the regular” illiterate. I hope your channel becomes widespread and widely viewed as Americans from small business owners to attorneys to journalists to newscasters wouldn’t know a past participle from a hole in the ground and speak as though they have never been told that adverbs exist. Drilling irregular verbs is apparently also a lost art and “I have ran” is more widespread then we care to believe. Of course, the more ignorant Americans are, the happier are the oligarchs, special interest owners and elite who own and operate this so-called democracy. That a democracy cannot be sustained with an illiterate electorate is only a foreign concept to the illiterate electorate.
They have known since the 1970s, since studying moon rock, that the Earth is hitting a 12,000 year cycle of severe solar events. It was the same timeframe that alteration in academic studies began. Foreign Languages, History, Government, Advanced Algebra, Chemistry, Physics, English and Literature began their exit from high school Curriculum. In the past 30 years, I have seen in the workplace, the damage this has done. No longer is the brain challenged, no longer are young adults able to memorize, absorb, large amounts of information to complete a job, work out formularies or other complicated tasks. I taught thru the 1980s, even at college level. These young adults could not formulate complex sentences much less incorporate them in a paragraph to answer essay exams. It is appalling how ignorant they are today. They want high paying jobs but are unwilling to do the work necessary to achieve those objectives. We as a nation are backsliding. Our Departments of Education have been behind a lot of the reasons why. From the Federal, to State Depts. of Education, and local School Boards, important curriculum subjects have been slashed to hire coaches of every type imaginable, to the detriment of creating intelligent, creative adults cognizant of what’s required to problem solve in today’s world. Government elites planned this well in advance to ensure a nation of adults who do not read anything but the Sports Page in their local newspapers, if they even read those at all. I had no problem when I taught school, demanding quality work. It was either do it or receive a D or F for a grade. Nowadays, all you get in response from them is “whatever.” We are running out of time. Only the extremely intelligent with survival skills will survive what is coming. The Feds were aware a half century ago of what the sun was going to do and set in place actions that will guarantee the demise of 2/3 of our population. One politician in Texas, some 5-6 yrs ago, even suggested we seniors be willing to die to save only the young. I assume he meant anyone over 50 should die by suicide, or be executed. This also included the disabled and mentally challenged. How sad that this world is destined to be destroyed and disappear with only a whimper. We are desperately in need of a renaissance .
Well, since we should and need to be in the business of correcting wrongs, maybe a good place to start would be with the fact that the USA is
a Republic and not a democracy, and understanding why there’s a huge difference. I challenge anyone to show the word democracy within any of our 51 Constitutions. Our founders went to great lengths to ensure we’d never be a democracy. It’s been said that in a democracy you have the privilege of voting for your rulers, but in a Republic you have the GOD granted inherent, inalienable, indefeasible, indubitable right to elect your servants.
🙏🇺🇸! ✌🏻
Sparkle this is excellent! I am 60 years old and a lot of this I don't even remember. You are restoring my confidence. Thank you!
Thank you so much for this video. I am a native English speaker and often struggle with punctuation rules. I need to understand 'why' the rule is this and not that. So far your video's have been a great help! I am even using what I learnt from this video to write this comment!
I got six out of eight right, so I need to probably watch your other videos! This was my first watch.
This was simple and straightforward. I got all correct due to your explanation
Me too! I am bilingual and i didn't understand the independent clauses and dependent - I was struggling to find them in the sentences.
You're*
@@komoisan-8081 You're = you are 😂
because of
@@RemakeofLife. Lol
I loved your lesson. You're the one I will follow for learning. And actually understood the way you teach. Thank You.
This video was so easy to understand and watch. I am currently studying for the Lieutenants exam and I need to brush up on my grammar and report writing. Thank you so much for sharing your gift with the world. 👍🏽👏🏽
I just came across your channel. You did a great job. I could listen, and watch you all day. I'm about to start an English class, so I need all the practice I can get.
Thank you! 😃
Thanks for your valuable lessons. I'm seventy - five years old, and still learning English whenever I have the chance. Hope to receive more lessons from you, and a million thanks!
You are very welcome! Awesome job!
Thank you so much. I am about to start transcribing and this has been helpful. Much love from Kenya 🇰🇪
Love from 🇵🇰
I find it useful when teaching contractions to write the two words on paper, then fold back the letters that can’t be seen when the apostrophe takes their place. We use coloured card and make a display with the examples the students. There are very few exceptions that don’t work this way.
They’re also able to fold the contraction back out to see what the two words originally were. It’s a good strategy because it teaches visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learners. I believe all activities should take into account these learning styles - not many female students are auditory learners. To find out a students learning style/s google VAK checklist.
It’s good to see a very good, basic grammar lesson as so many people, especially younger adults write, “Your a legend” incorrectly instead of, “You’re a legend”. Folding out the missing letters make this clearer. It’s just one of many strategies I use - it’s very clear.
That is an excellent teaching tool and strategy. All of the females in my family are visual learners!
Scored 7. You're a great teacher Jenny. Thanks.
Your incorrect! It's 'Scored seven, You're a great teacher Jenny, Thanks.'
Thank you for your video tutorial. I have now started to follow your lessons and explanations. I must admit seeing a video is a lot easier to understand than reading examples that don't clarify learning. With my limited budget UA-cam is basically my only reliable source for learning without guessing.
Ro ro ROBUX
You are one of the best tutors, I have come across watching the videos on commas. You made it very easy to understand. I would like to watch all your upcoming videos. Thank you.
Thank you so much for making these grammar lessons so easy to understand ❤
I was probably taught these rules at some point in my education. Lord knows I've been in the system long enough. But it was interesting to see what I do without thinking, that is, what I may have learned by rote, expressed as a clear set of rules. It's also interesting to note the differences between English punctuation and other languages. French, German, and Russian all have variations on some of these.
Extremely clear and concise. Well done!
17:07
I got 8/8.
I am Brazilian, and I taught English myself, just copying the 12 books of a British English course my mother had back in the 70s. I used to listen to cassette disks to get used to the pronunciation. I am better at writing than speaking, but I am weak at using prepositions in sentences.
Thanks so much for your video.
Wonderful! That is fantastic!
I want to thank you for this video! You are truly an amazing teacher; You have an easy way to explain. There are many things I learned from this video: how to use colons, semicolons, commas, and others. Thanks and keep up the good work! Always success, I wish you good health and a long life
Thank you so much. I've just started working as a transcriptionist, & need to brush up on punctuation. Your clear presentation & format is splendid. Then there are vids on each punctuation mark 🤗 Girl, you're too cool.
Nowadays most people can't write or speak proper English. Much needed tutorial video.
What’s proper English? The Queens?
Thanks so much Sparkle English this surely can help me in English Language test,but I need to study more to write good essays 😊
OUTSTANDING! I particularly like that you endorse the use of the Oxford comma. It would appear you also prefer a single space after full stops. I am old school in that regard (habitual double spacer). Have you done a video on the use of semicolons as complex list separators?
I have corrected all the mistakes in the eight sentences correctly as they supposed to be written!
Appreciate very much your teaching!
Number 8 cleared up some recent confusion for me. I was always taught to add the comma before the conjunction (i.e. what you called the Oxford comma) but I've seen writings in the past few years where people have omitted it. I didn't know that it was now considered optional. Regardless I agree with you that it should always be used. Thanks.
Same here. I always used the Oxford comma, but also always questioned my use of it.
Furthermore, I'm a little intimidated posting comments on this English Writing Essentials Series, lest I expose my English writing shortcomings. 😏
I never used the Oxford comma. I never thought it was correct because it seems redundant in conversational English because the "and" is there in tell you this the last item in the list. I'm pretty sure I learned that in grammar school.
@@jeffmuller1489 Agree 100% (exclamation mark)😄
@@jeffmuller1489 Yes. We were taught at school that a comma should not be placed before the "and". This was 50 years ago.. Maybe it's an American thing as in The UK I've never seen it used?
I got 8/8 .I understand the 13 basic punctuation. Thank you for this lesson.
Great job!!!
Bravo for providing an important service. As a 68 yr old I appreciate good english - but I fear that this is already a lost art. With cell phones being the rule now, we've lost the art of writing full sentences much less a paragraph. I'm horrified at the lack of grammar or sentence structure that I see in media!
You were born to be a teacher. Thanks.
I got 7 out of 8. Such an amazing, and easy to understand lecture.💜
... easy-to-understand ...
@@preasail easy to understand*
@@freya2093 Hyphenated as an adjectival phrase.
if there has been my father he would say where is 1 number
You are simply the best ♥️ you are one of the UA-cam channels I find quite informative, inspiring and interesting.
Thank you so much for your kind words!
I agree with you.
This was my first video, but the way you teach made me your subscriber. You are awesome! Keep up the good work.
Thank you so much!
Great class in punctuation period. Thank you for helping me understand punctuation.
First of all, thank you for this video. I have some questions/notes on a couple of things you mentioned.
1) regarding apostrophes: when people say that the apostrophe is used "to express possession", it's actually an imprecise statement. The apostrophe is used to show there is a letter missing in the Saxon Genitive, which was an "e" that was never pronounced. The Saxon Genitive ('s) shows possession; the apostrophe shows there is a letter missing.
2) Now we reach the serious subject of the Oxford Comma. *deep sigh of resignation° I was taught that that final "and" in a sequence of three should never be preceded by a comma; the comma would only be placed when the conjunction "and" had the function of introducing a final result at the end of a sentence or at the end of an entire paragraph. In creative writing at times, we use an "em-dash" instead of a comma. I am aware this is probably no longer taught in schools.
3)This leads to the next point, which is placing a comma before coordinate conjunctions. Nowadays, a lot of people do exactly what you said because, in some contexts, this is needed to help regulate the flow of reading a speech; however, this is not always the case. I distinctly remember that in creative writing this was discouraged. In creative writing, you would only do that in direct speech situations where the reading would have to simulate regular expressive speech.
4) You might think about doing another video covering the conventions of using quotation marks in writing direct speech because I find a lot of people don't use this any longer, and it's really difficult to understand what people write at times!
There are so many times I feel as if I am the only person online who cares enough to take the time to type coherently. Thank you for this video and for a very clear description of proper and simple punctuation. I can understand that when using a phone, brevity in typing on a very small keyboard, it might be tempting to "cheat", but communication and punctuation is still important.
I missed the double error, otherwise I got the rest correct. This is actually a great refresher. Thank you very much for doing these lectures. I was just moved up a little in my company and need to up my grammar game a bit.
Congratulations on your promotion! That's awesome 😎
Wow! Till I see this video, I thought; I am great teacher. ( easy to be good teacher when u want to explain a logic in science,or math.)
There are millions of Americans who need to tune into this channel.
I hope they do! 😅
Thanks for a useful footage. It makes everything much more clear for a non-native speaker.
You're kind_hearted teacher i wanna really appreciate you.Thank you for making these kind of lesson! I've learned lots of useful things.
That is so kind of you to say. Thank you for your lovely words!
Hello my dear,you’re an excellent teacher!😁
And also it's greate series for me to strong my English writing and reading basics
Again thanks a lot😉
I have learned so much in 17 min Thank you😍!
You're so welcome!
Wow i don't think i had learnt so many things in in few minutes ever. Thank you so much.
Important subjects very well explained; you are a good teacher.
A little personal note here: reading properly written languages (emphasis in "properly") will improve this kind of information.
Today, a lot of people text messages trumping all over the language and create a trendy way of communication; that not only destroy basic grammars rules, but makes it unintelligible.
Naively, I though that this kind of trend only happens in English, but I found that it does in any other language as well. You have to see the monstrosities I have to read in Spanish (my first one).
Thanks for your amazing classes; keep them coming amiga.
Greetings from Toronto.
Aku adalah mahasiswa yang berasal dari indonesia, saya menemukan chanel ini dari tugas kuliah ku, dan sangat membantu sekali, terimakasih untuk ilmunya.
UT kak? 😅
@@p_anggaissarofdwisanjaya838 iya benerr bangett
Hello Jennifer. I'm from Brazil and my English for writing is basic, although I can read well beyond the basics. Therefore, I had a doubt. Currently I study English alone, through videos like yours. I usually pause the video and write the sentence suggested by the author of the video in the way I think is correct. So, before I saw the expression "woman with a good heart" in the correct way you taught, I paused the video and wrote as I thought it would be right and I wrote it like this: good-heart woman and not kind-hearted woman.
I put the two sentences in Google Translate (I know the tool has limitations) and the translation was the same. My question is: why can't you write like I thought: good-heart woman? What is wrong with this form of writing?
Thanks for your reply and I'm learning a lot from your videos. Thanks"
Just a quick answer for you. Good - heart woman just isn't a phrase in English. You could use it but it would be considered odd and not nessecarily be understood. Kind-hearted woman means a woman with a kind-heart, which means she is kind and giving, etc. Good-heart woman could theoretically mean the same, , or the woman has a physicality good heart, or something else dependent on how it is interpreted. Everyone knows the first phrase, and no one knows the second. That is why you use the first.
I hope this helps a little. Please excuse the punctuation, this keyboard makes it difficult.
I got 6/8 I've always been confused on how or when to use , Thank you for this lesson. 😊
Great work!!!
same lol but now I understand it.
Good job! My exclamation mark means that I’m impressed that you take the time to notice peoples punctuation errors. A contraction would be “Today’s a humid day.” It is complete with a period. On Facebook I see that a lot of people forget to complete the sentence with a period. I’m glad you have a video to fix people’s sentence structures. An Independent Clause completes the whole aspect of a sentence through a coordinating conjunction while the Dependent Clause reverses the direction of the Clause and involves a subordinating conjunction to make sure that the sentence doesn’t attract the thought of the sentence to stand independently. Punctuation Marks/Symbol Meanings: a period completes a sentences conversation and thought. A comma is when a group of words in the sentence are being separated and paused from the continuity of a thought or idea. There’s lots of punctuation’s but that’s what I have for now.
Thank you so very much! While I have a high school education this is a nice refresher.
Your lesson is extremely helpful.
I got 8/8. Well explained mam. Thank you for this lesson. ❤️
Hii
Me to
I am a foreigner learning English.
Thank you for your very helpful English lesson.
Really, really useful!
Thank you! I needed an English refresher, so I added your video to my playlist. You explained it all wonderfully!
Thank you so much 😊😊
Love your fluency and accuracy. You're the best, but not better than my English tuition teacher. She's the best
From an elderly British English teacher. I hope this is helpful.
Never use a comma before “and”. A semi-colon can be used.
Numbers before eleven can be numerical as in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. After that, they are written out in full, as in eleven, etc. If in a financial document, the number may be included in a bracket for further clarity.
Do not use a full stop for a title if it ends in the last letter of the word. For example, “Dr Smith” ; “Ms White” or “ Mrs Green” ( originally from ‘Mistress’). “Professor would be Prof. Brown.
Commas before ‘and’ are very common and generally considered correct if it is separating 2 independent clauses
It’s part of FANBOYS, Dude.
Thank you my friend for the excellent tutelage. I was taught the same way for the use of the comma by my fourth grade teacher. It looks much nicer as well in my opinion; the extra comma confuses and muddy's things because you already have "and" making the separation.
I think British writing rules are different from the American ones (not all ofc), but it made me surprised to learn before that British uses ' ' instead of " " in dialogs.
Sorry english isn't my first language so i don't know what they are called. 😅
True
I had 7/8 mistake because I’m not just to used the semicolons. English is my second language and I’m so grateful with your lessons. Thank you very much!
It's nice of you to teach kids about Puncuation. However, my brother said, "thank you" .
thank you so much! watched this video for the 2nd for my next grade. your lessons are easy to understand and to the point. LUV IT!
Yay! I am so glad my videos are helping you!
You clarified some of my questions! Excellent lesson; thank you!
his is great! Simple and concise rules with examples. I’m a 50yr old college graduate, but never felt I fully understood basic English grammar because the rules seemed vague. Thank you!
I'm in enjoying refreshing my memory at fifty-three years old now.
I've started writing again, and it's been an amazing thing to complete this refresh course.
I managed to get 8/8.
I still need to work on my semi-colon use, so I'll do that video too. 😊
Thank you.
This channel is just a hidden treasure. Thanks for the great content.
Thank you so much!
You explained it so easily. I've been struggling with grammar for years and this has helped me immensely. Thank you
I'm so glad!
I have found a semicolon, and a hyphen use to be a bit challenging. English is not my first non-native language, as I have always felt. In fact, it was officially considered as the first foreign one. The reason was that the second official language in my country was not counted as "foreign", although it felt definitely foreign to me. Apart from that, being taught to read and write English must have created a good basis for the adopting the rules covered by this video. Thanks for confirming my belief! But one error in at least in common American use you did not note, and what disturbs me, was the "it's" and "its" distinction. I assume you either have already covered it, or will do so in the future. A former boss of mine once said: "Why did we need to import this alien to correct us in our use of English language?" It was a joke, but I replied: "Well, but you can correct my pronunciation any time!" As indeed anybody could; my education - reading and writing - skipped, or failed the speaking part.
I am pretty good in English. I reviewed this tutorial to see what lesson it contained. I found it to be a very good and helpful. Kindness, Teresa
The Oxford comma is that thing that does not look good, but basically ensures that you are crystal clear as to exactly what you mean.
Always a safe option
But why do we have to be redundant; we know that reading the sentence the conjunction "and" already separates the third item, in this case, so why use a comma" Is this to separate the item from"and"?
@@pkicng210 there is an old example where the difference is key.
1.) We invited the strippers, Stalin, and Hitler (meaning you invited three people or more).
2.) We invited the strippers, Stalin and Hitler (you invited two people and both of those people are strippers lol).
The redundancy removes all doubt as to exactly what is meant when you encounter the random trickily-worded sentence, at least that’s why I would use it:P
@@Hissingcash123 Your explanations are convincing. Thanks.
Thank you Sparkle English. I have trouble with the basics and want to improve.
Thank you! I am a fluent english speaker, and this is the best video I have I have ever seen for punctuation!
That makes me so happy to hear! Thanks, Scott!
“Let’s eat Grandma!” No…”Let’s eat, Grandma.”
Yes, please don't your grandma.
I got seven out of eight correct. I'm going to keep at it with the lessons you made, and hope to finish them all.
I used this to study for the ACT; its very simple and straight forward!
Very pleasing to listen to the instruction, Also, a very calm and evenly spread out little course to follow. It been so long since english class and this video is great to refresh the basics of writing english. Many thanks for the videos and I have subscribed to your channel.
What is the difference between American and British punctuation?
You are indeed a blessing to me. May God bless you and keep.
Thank you again . Wow, your english punctuation channel has really improved my english skills. I am so happy with your help. I am learning and want to write a book. I will let you kow the out come I will also look at ordering your book. That would be great you don't know how much you have helped me. Forever grateful to you and your wonderful channel.... Yey..... God bless you..
You are so kind! Your persistence and hard work has really paid off. Well done, Rebecca! ✨🎉
Got all 8 right, THANKS TO YOU.
I had great understanding of this lesson before watching, but you clarified it pretty darn good.
Thansk. Subbed.
You're English is amazing, I will support you to go on further on teaching others
This is my first video .I always felt difficult to wrote punctuation marks but when I saw you're video before my English exam I got perfect on it thank you so much mam . You're better than my English sir
Thank you, Sparkle. Your teaching is so refreshing. 👍
Thank you very much, this really helps us when studying at an open university
I have really learnt a lot going through your lessons. Thank you so much