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Nastassja's Reviews > Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
by
bookshelves: read-in-russian, nonfiction
This is a first book in a while I read in russian. You may notice that maybe it's not the best idea to read a book about english grammar in russian language. But worry not, I had a really good translation that was created with the help of many educated british ladies and gentlemen; moreover the original quotes were saved in translation and I had a bonus in a form of two phrases instead of one.
This book is not a grammar book but an entertaining nonfiction about the most funny misuse of punctuation. As you can see from the title, the original meaning was that panda eats shoots and leaves, but someone misplaced one comma, and the result is drastically changed. We have in russian similar phrase and even a wonderful cartoon "In the country of unlearned lessons" about it.
There's a difference between russian punctuation and english punctuation, and sometimes when I write my reviews, I find it rather hard to determine whether this comma is ok to use in english as I use it in russian. Well, this book definitely helped me to distinguish some of these rules. It is - to some extent - a depository of different references to world-known classics and how they used punctuation to create their masterpieces. It was, at least, educational information and, at most, spiced with funny examples.
But in many ways this book is for huge fans of punctuation. There were times I couldn't really understand the author and her obsessive love with punctuation, and considering the punctuation mark in the wrong place almost an unforgivable crime. Sometimes it was annoying to read all the author's hysterics about misuse of it. Maybe I am wrong and don't get it, but in this case I can freely admit: I don't get all this obsession. But I definitely agree with Lynne Truss in one thing for sure: punctuation, in the first place, must bring the correct meaning to words, and underline emotions and the mood author wants to show to his readers.
Reading Progress
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Yes, I agree, I pay attention to important things too and especially it's annoying to see mistakes made by journalists on tv - it's kind of a constant tendency now a very sad one. Also, English is more confusing for me in the matter of punctuation: I want to put all the commas I know I would use in Russian but in English it seems many of these comas are not needed :'(
Mistakes on tv ARE a crime :D The most irritating mistake for me is "одеть/надеть" and I always correct it when a person I know use it wrong (and after two years of constant reminders I still don't get how my mom or my friends can make it again and again from time to time), but especially irritating they sound on news, yes.Same here. I always want to put a comma before "that", but it shouldn't be there and it drives me crazy. I can't even imagine how all these obsessed with punctuation people react to out messages, where almost all the commas are in wrong places :D
Me too! I constantly correct my relatives and friends about надеть/одеть. And also i hate when people use ложи instead of клади or when they put stress on the wrong syllable >:( I don't consider myself a grammar nerd and often can make mistakes, and especially when i am typing smth on computer and feel lazy to put a comma in the right place :D But you are right, some mistakes are a crime. And our knowledge of English grammar is a long way from perfection but we are getting there ;)
Sometimes I correct even strangers. I just can help myself!!
Katerina wrote: "Sometimes I correct even strangers. I just can help myself!!"haha, then you a definitely a grammar nerd :D
It's like I'm in a bus and then someone says тортЫ and then I answer very quietly but firm, staring not at the grammar-rapist but at nowhere in particular, тОрты. And I can breathe again)
Katerina wrote: "It's like I'm in a bus and then someone says тортЫ and then I answer very quietly but firm, staring not at the grammar-rapist but at nowhere in particular, тОрты. And I can breathe again)"ahaha, yeah I hate when they mispronounce this one too. It's just, there's a bunch of a very popular words everybody MUST know how to pronounce, and when they don't, it seems like a crime indeed against poor tortured grammar :'(
Nastassja wrote: "Katerina wrote: "It's like I'm in a bus and then someone says тортЫ and then I answer very quietly but firm, staring not at the grammar-rapist but at nowhere in particular, тОрты. And I can breathe..."And the worst of all звОнит instead of звонИт. I might die of hearing that.
Katerina wrote: "Nastassja wrote: "Katerina wrote: "It's like I'm in a bus and then someone says тортЫ and then I answer very quietly but firm, staring not at the grammar-rapist but at nowhere in particular, тОрты...."Ah, don't even mention it! It's the WORST. I literally hate people who say it incorrectly >:(
But I'm that person who is kind of obsessed with grammar, haha. I do not correct people about punctuation though (only if it changes the sense of the message or if it's a good friend of mine and I want to tease him/her), but I pay attention to it a lot, especially when it comes to business relationship, I can't really understand how people who promote something or offer their services or especially a job (!) can make so many mistakes. I know we're all human and everyone has a right to make errors, but ugh.