Job Discussion Forums

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

Days of the week are not capitalized either, s'far as I know. The planets of the solar system are though.

I've seen a lot of people struggle with punctuation in writing. As near as I can tell, the rules are just about the same as in English. I think it's simply that many people here have poor writing skills.

The infamous run-on sentence...200 words on Why I like My english Teacher and no more than a single period to be found.

cwc · Joined: 16 Nov 2005 Posts: 372

MO39 · Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 11:13 pm Post subject:

I began my teaching life as a Spanish teacher way back when learning grammar rules was paramount. So I feel quite certain in stating that the following are not capitalized in Spanish:

months
seasons
days of the week
languages
nationalities
adjectives formed from proper nouns
names of religions and their followers
points of the compass

cwc - "Hacen falta doce horas" means that this amount of time is necessary to make the proposed trip, not that the person speaking does not have that time available.

Cheers,

MO

cwc · Joined: 16 Nov 2005 Posts: 372

Thanks, MO39. What about the period used when there is not a sentence?

Ben Round de Bloc · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1946

Check out the following site for standard Spanish capitalization rules:

http://spanish.about.com/library/weekly/aa072699.htm

For standard punctuation rules in Spanish:

http://spanish.about.com/library/weekly/aa071999.htm

MO39 · Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 11:42 pm Post subject:

I agree with Guy that the (mis)use of the comma in Engish comes from poor literacy skills in the writers' native tongue.

hlamb · Joined: 09 Dec 2003 Posts: 431 Location: Canada

Many students do seem to use very long sentences, with only a comma to separate ideas. The other day I was trying to explain to a TOEFL student that this doesn't work in English. Her argument was that all the ideas in her paragraph were related, so they should all be in one sentence! Next week we're going to work on different ways of connecting ideas properly in English...

cwc · Joined: 16 Nov 2005 Posts: 372

Ben, it is obvious that you are very deserving of your univ. job. Thanks for the info. What took you so long? Did a mestiza have you otherwise occupied?
Uh Oh, is mestiza an insult in the other parts of Mexico?
It does mean half-breed, doesn�t it? We use it to mean the opposite, a Mayan woman. �Gyp� lasted for a week, or more. Maybe we can get a little mileage out of half-breed.

I am still curious as to if we all have two days off next week.

M@tt · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 473 Location: here and there

i get bothered by punctuation errors. there was a great thread a while back on misused quotation marks. the following week i was walking down the sidewalk and i just happened to have a camera on hand when i noticed an ad soliticing "somthing". i don't remember what that something was, but i took a picture of the ad and wanted to put it up on this page. unfortunately, the pic is on the old laptop that i no longer have "access" to.

one minor difference between english and the romance languages (and probably plenty of other languages) is that when you list things in english, there is a final comma before the last item. i'm not sure why but i'm hyper-sensitive to that particular point and it always bothers me to read a list of things with the last comma missing.

thanks for all the translation help, by the way.

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

I follow that comma rule when listing, but I've seen a lot of instances where it was left out in English. Bit of a pet peeve of mine too. I'll bet someone comes here to argue for a lack of the comma.

Into a bar walked a Newfie, a Gypsy, and a Mayan mestizzo....

Elise9 · Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 32 Location: Celaya, GTO

Well, this post has morphed since I asked my question but did not get a chance to check back until now... so thanks Melee for the answer. I haven't taken it as an insult as I have been told in the past that Mexicans tend to make observations on appearances, but not mean anything negative by it; and it's not only with Mexicans that I have experienced this with in the past, there are many cultures who are that way about physical appearances.
I just wanted to be clear on the meaning.
Thanks again!

snorklequeen · Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 4:46 am Post subject:

cwc, how about some jokes? you have a good sense of humor; i miss that!

cheers,

Queenie

grahamcito · Joined: 11 Sep 2004 Posts: 90 Location: Guadalajara

Saw a poster today advertising a conference to be attended by lots of (quote)ONG�s(unquote).

An example of Spanish absording English punctuation - and bad English punctuation to boot?!