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What has happened to the full stop?
Thread poster: Tom in London
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:42
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Oct 24, 2018

The following message, which I received today, is all too typical:

"Your estimated delivery date is Wednesday, 24 October 2018, as requested we will deliver your parcel between 06:00 and 22:00"

POSSIBLE CORRECT VERSIONS:

1. "Your estimated delivery date is Wednesday, 24 October 2018. As requested we will deliver your parcel between 06:00 and 22:00"

2. "Your estimated delivery date is Wednesday, 24 October 2018 as requested. We will deliver your
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The following message, which I received today, is all too typical:

"Your estimated delivery date is Wednesday, 24 October 2018, as requested we will deliver your parcel between 06:00 and 22:00"

POSSIBLE CORRECT VERSIONS:

1. "Your estimated delivery date is Wednesday, 24 October 2018. As requested we will deliver your parcel between 06:00 and 22:00"

2. "Your estimated delivery date is Wednesday, 24 October 2018 as requested. We will deliver your parcel between 06:00 and 22:00"

Which one is correct? Because the original certainly isn't; it means nothing at all.

[Edited at 2018-10-24 08:26 GMT]
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Nelly Keavney
 
Soonthon LUPKITARO(Ph.D.)
Soonthon LUPKITARO(Ph.D.)  Identity Verified
Thailand
Local time: 18:42
English to Thai
+ ...
Tweeter? Oct 24, 2018

In Europe, comma replaces full stop e. g. in numerical digits.
Smartphone autocorrect also confuses comma with full stop to end a sentence (a dot triggers autocorrect of a word). I see that writing in Tweeter and other is reluctant to show the full stop due to this reason. This is an evolution of writing styles.

Soonthon L.


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:42
Member (2008)
Italian to English
TOPIC STARTER
Not in this part of Europe Oct 24, 2018

Soonthon LUPKITARO(Ph.D.) wrote:

In Europe, comma replaces full stop e. g. in numerical digits.


Not in this part of Europe.

Which of my two options, given above, is correct?


 
EvaVer (X)
EvaVer (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 12:42
Czech to French
+ ...
I have seen worse Oct 24, 2018

I have a client who will write half a page in meeting minutes without full stops. When you upload this into CAT...

 
DZiW (X)
DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
+ ...
#1 Antecedent: ETA Oct 24, 2018

"From 6 a.m to 10 p.m." is no time-sensitive shipment and makes no big difference, yet I would read it as "Your estimated delivery date is Wednesday, 24 October 2018. As requested[,] we will deliver your parcel between 06:00 and 22:00"

 
Nelly Keavney
Nelly Keavney  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:42
Member (2017)
Bulgarian to English
+ ...
First option Oct 24, 2018

Hi Tom,

I believe that your first suggestion is the correct one.

Grammar and Spelling seem to have taken a back seat in this fast-paced world.

Cheers,
Nelly


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:42
Member (2008)
Italian to English
TOPIC STARTER
Endless examples. Oct 24, 2018

Just seen this:

"There is no need for Northern Ireland to import dairy products from Britain, it can produce its own."

Corrected version 1:

"There is no need for Northern Ireland to import dairy products from Britain. It can produce its own."

Corrected version 2:

"There is no need for Northern Ireland to import dairy products from Britain; it can produce its own."


Tradupro17
 
Erik Freitag
Erik Freitag  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 12:42
Member (2006)
Dutch to German
+ ...
Translationese? Oct 24, 2018

Maybe the authors aren't native? In German for example, joining two main clauses with nothing but a comma is absolutely fine, so it seems that doing this in English might be a common mistake made by Germans. This would point to version one in your first example. Would you care to explain the difference in meaning between the two versions in your second example (after all, I am German)?



[Edited at 2018-10-24 11:40 GMT]


 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 12:42
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Heard about this on the radio recently Oct 24, 2018

Tom in London wrote:
The following message, which I received today, is all too typical...


Some kind of recent study (can't find the reference) found that many social media users now consider fullstops to be abrupt and impolite (perhaps the same or similar people who consider any post to be impolite if there isn't at least three smileys or emoji).

E-mail is not social media, but it's natural that conventions for one type of e-communication might pollute or cross over to similar or other forms.

Letters and e-mails are no longer the first type of e-communication that people use or grow up with. Well, some people learn e-mail first, before they learn about letter writing, but some of the younger people now learn Facebook and Twitter before they even begin to learn about e-mail and posting on "traditional" forums.

When my teenage son had to apply for a summer jobs via e-mail, and we discovered he was firing off one-liners, we told him "just write it the same way you would write a letter"... only to discover that the kids don't learn letter writing at school anymore.

Tom in London wrote:
"Your estimated delivery date is Wednesday, 24 October 2018, as requested we will deliver your parcel between 06:00 and 22:00"


I have a Chinese client that writes like that all the time in his software product (i.e. two sentences combined with a comma, and no fullstop). When I translate it into my target language, I change the comma to a semi-colon and add a fullstop at the end.


[Edited at 2018-10-24 12:42 GMT]


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:42
Member (2008)
Italian to English
TOPIC STARTER
A warning: Oct 24, 2018

What animal eats shoots and leaves?
What animal eats, shoots, and leaves?

Misuse of punctuation can lead to serious mistakes. The example above is a joke, but in most cases the writer would not be joking.


Loreta Saddi
Natalia Pedrosa
P.L.F. Persio
Rebecca Davis
 
Arabic & More
Arabic & More  Identity Verified
Jordan
Arabic to English
+ ...
And that time-honored classic... Oct 24, 2018

Let's eat, Grandma!

Versus:

Let's eat Grandma!


Tom in London
P.L.F. Persio
Melanie Maiwald-Meylahn
 
Andrzej Mierzejewski
Andrzej Mierzejewski  Identity Verified
Poland
Local time: 12:42
Polish to English
+ ...
Sertious mistakes should be expected. Oct 24, 2018

Tom in London wrote:
Misuse of punctuation can lead to serious mistakes.


Exactly. The longest sentence I remember included approx. 450 words. Many commas before the full stop was found. That was a technical text, one of numerous claims in a patent description. How can such amount of words be translated without errors and mistakes?


 
Jennifer Forbes
Jennifer Forbes  Identity Verified
Local time: 11:42
French to English
+ ...
In memoriam
The barber's shop window Oct 24, 2018

My late father used to quote a sign he saw in a London barber's shop window when he was a boy:

WHAT DO YOU THINK I'LL SHAVE YOU FOR NOTHING AND BUY YOU A DRINK

If a customer asked the barber to honour his offer, the barber would reply: What! Do you think I'll shave you for nothing and buy you a drink?

Tee hee


Tom in London
P.L.F. Persio
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:42
Member (2008)
Italian to English
TOPIC STARTER
OK but.... Oct 24, 2018

Jennifer Forbes wrote:

My late father used to quote a sign he saw in a London barber's shop window when he was a boy:

WHAT DO YOU THINK I'LL SHAVE YOU FOR NOTHING AND BUY YOU A DRINK

If a customer asked the barber to honour his offer, the barber would reply: What! Do you think I'll shave you for nothing and buy you a drink?

Tee hee


OK but my complaint/concern is about the bad (and potentially dangerous) practice of using a comma where a full stop, or a semicolon, would be correct. This happens not only in English but also in my other language (Italian).

[Edited at 2018-10-24 14:01 GMT]


P.L.F. Persio
 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
Just modern informal writing Oct 24, 2018

I don't see what the problem is, it's entirely normal for people to write like that these days, get with the times Tom!

More generally, although many people have poor spelling, punctuation, grammar and vocabulary, you can still understand perfectly well what they're saying.

Lawyers are theoretically the most precise and pedantic writers around, yet very often they choose to use no commas at all...


 
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What has happened to the full stop?






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