Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[hela]

Dear teachers,

1) Can we use punctuation signals within dashes? e.g.

�I have always been fond of reading �this comes from my mother ; /, she was a storyteller.�

2) Or should the information written between dashes be formed of a single clause only? e.g.

�I have always been fond of reading �this comes from my mother who was a storyteller.�

B/ How should I spell the following ?

�literature� takes one �t� in English, but two �t�s� / �ts� (?) in French.�

Thank you,
Hela

[welkins2139]

dash here replaces semicolon. i think #2 is correct.

[LucentShade]

On #2, one small change:

"I have always been fond of reading--this comes from my mother, who was a storyteller."

"who was a storyteller" is a non-restrictive clause, so it needs a comma. It's non-restrictive because it doesn't identify which mother was a storyteller; it only gives additional information about your mother.

[hela]

Thanks Lucent