Fractured Grammar Tales: The Three Punctuation Marks

Once upon a time, there were three punctuation marks that people sometimes got confused:

Papa Period, Big Brother Semicolon, and Baby Comma. Each of them had different jobs.

SENTENCES

Papa Period was strongest of all. His job was to keep sentences separate, so you knew where one ended and the other began:

Jeannie decided to go to Carolina. Her sister Genie preferred to attend UNCG.

Brother Semicolon wasn't strong enough to keep sentences separate, but he could join them together all on his own without any help from those silly old coordinating conjunctions like AND, BUT, or OR.

Jeannie decided to go to Carolina; her sister Genie preferred to attend UNCG.

Baby Comma was the weakest of all. He couldn't join sentences together unless he got help from AND, BUT, or OR:

Jeanie decided to go to Carolina, but her sister Genie preferred to attend UNCG.

(Generally, Brother Semicolon only joined sentences that were long and complicated and closely related. Otherwise, they were better off as two separate sentences. Nobody really liked Brother Semicolon; really, it was just as easy to get along without him.)

One of Brother Semicolon's jobs was to keep things straight if Baby Comma got involved.

If Baby Comma appeared ANYWHERE in two sentences being joined, Brother Semicolon had to step in, even if you also used AND, BUT, or OR.

Jeannie decided to go to Carolina; but her sister Genie, who was far smarter, preferred to attend UNCG.

ITEMS IN A SERIES

Baby Comma also separated items in a series. For example, let's say your laundry room had:

a washer
a drier
a toolbox
a potted palm

In a sentence, you would use Baby Comma to keep items separate:

My laundry room contains a washer, a drier, a toolbox, and a potted palm.

But what if one of your items already had commas in it? Say...

a toolbox with a hammer, wrench, and screwdriver?

Now you would need Brother Semicolon to keep the other items straight:

My laundry room contains a washer; a drier; a toolbox with a hammer, wrench, and screwdriver; and a potted palm.

This is so you can tell which items in the series really belong together.


Although people seldom have trouble remembering what Papa Period does, Brother Semicolon and Baby Comma can get confusing. The thing to remember is that Brother Semicolon is "weaker" than Papa Period and "stronger" than Baby Comma. He is the perfect "middleman."

And if you like THIS grammar tale, just wait till I tell you about dashes...

Your friendly neighborhood Grammar Maven