The period (full stop) is the punctuation mark that marks the grammatical and logical end of a sentence. The main difference comes from its greatest use in English. In Spanish, the period generally signals a pause or separation; the relationship is generally expressed with the comma and the semicolon. English uses the period before conjunctions, […]
In English, we use concision (many short words or phrases) as well as an economy of language (fewer words), the preference we demonstrate for the impersonal vision of reality (objectivity), our calls to evoke feelings (appeal to the senses, images), the abstract analysis and the lack of naming of the agent of an action (passive […]
No Fear Shakespeare is a service that translates the most difficult of languages most people encounter, the Early Modern English of Shakespeare, into contemporary English prose. As we have touched on before, translators are readers more than anything and are primarily concerned with making a work understandable for their target audience and that is exactly […]
This punctuation mark is, in Spanish, the equivalent to parentheses, though it does have one function that differs: marking off asides that are suggestive, ironic, or emotional, and the effect is stylistic. It must always be placed at the end of the aside, even when it is the end of the sentence. In English, a […]
As I mentioned earlier, the Global Language Monitor previewed the introduction of the one millionth word to the English language. Great publicity followed. They have returned two months later to declare that the one million word barrier has been surpassed. Fanfare abounds to celebrate this glorious day. And the GLM brand is once again associated […]
I was sent over to Wordnik.com yesterday and all productive plans I had were immediately dashed and replaced with “let’s see what it says about this word…” Wordnik’s purpose is to display all working knowledge, centered around the definition, etymology, and usage examples, but also providing information such as statistics and associated images, of just […]
In English, I feel that I encounter parataxis more often than in the Romance languages (though I have no good evidence to back this up). Parataxis is putting together sentences without any coordinating conjunctions to spice up a text, make it move quicker, and not repeat the same conjunctions over and over. I find that […]
The principal function of quotation marks is to mark quotes and dialogues. In Spanish, there are two formulas for dialogues: dashes and quotation marks. The latter are used when dialogues are incorporated in the paragraph or within a dialogue that is marked off by quotation marks. Quotation marks are also used with memories and thoughts. […]
As I have brought up on this site before, one of the things I most appreciate about the English language is the amount of creativity speakers have due to the lack of a regulating body. Another issue that has never ceased to amaze me is the fact that other countries do not allow you to […]
The custom in English today of having expository clarity give precedence to short sentences that are separated by periods, whereas in Spanish the are considered as subordinate elements within a main sentence. The greatest extension of the period in English in relation to Spanish is seen in the capacity of English to construct a series […]