Skip to content

Advanced Dunglish

Valkuilen voor gevorderden…

  • Home
    • More
    • Disclaimer
  • Blog
    • Popular posts
    • Words to avoid
    • Words you don’t use enough
  • Categories
  • Search
  • About
  • Contact

Category Archives: Punctuation

“Proud to be a PSV-fan”

A typical Dutch hyphen, except that this one was big (and I mean BIG) – several metres in length, in the backdrop to a Europa League game.

Posted byMike WilkinsonMarch 1, 2021March 1, 2021Posted inAdvanced, Grammar, PunctuationTags:dunglish, engels, gebruik koppelteken, koppeltekenLeave a comment on “Proud to be a PSV-fan”

A black-and-white issue?

You’d think colours are pretty elementary and there ought to be no mistakes there. But there are still pitfalls when colours are combined.

Posted byMike WilkinsonNovember 20, 2020Posted inElementary, PunctuationTags:dunglish, engels, geel-zwart, rood-wit, zwart-wit1 Comment on A black-and-white issue?

Highlighting borrowed words

A brief aside for translators: if the author has italicized something merely to emphasize that it’s borrowed from English, there’s no need to take that formatting across!

Posted byMike WilkinsonSeptember 23, 2020September 23, 2020Posted inAdvanced, PunctuationTags:CAT, dunglish, engels, leenwoordLeave a comment on Highlighting borrowed words

English as she is spoken

The Dutch are great communicators who get their message across well in spoken English. But actually putting the spoken word on paper is a pig with a different snout altogether.

Posted byMike WilkinsonAugust 25, 2020September 24, 2020Posted inAdvanced, Punctuation, StyleTags:aanhalingstekens, contractievormen, dubbele punt, dunglish, eens, engels, ja, komma, niet waar, nouLeave a comment on English as she is spoken

South America, West Africa, North Korea

None of these take a hyphen in English. Simple.

Posted byMike WilkinsonAugust 12, 2020Posted inAdvanced, PunctuationTags:dunglish, engels, Groot-BritanniĆ«, Nieuw-Zeeland, Noord-Amerika, Noord-Ierland, Noord-Korea, West-Afrika, Zuid-Afrika, Zuid-Amerika, Zuid-KoreaLeave a comment on South America, West Africa, North Korea

Arithmetic

Hold on, that’s the same in all languages… isn’t it?

Posted byMike WilkinsonAugust 11, 2020August 11, 2020Posted inAdvanced, PunctuationTags:decimale punt, dubbele punt, dunglish, engels, plusminusLeave a comment on Arithmetic

Accents for emphasis

Adding acute accents to the vowels of a word to signifiy that it should be emphasized is a purely Dutch typographical convention.

Posted byMike WilkinsonJuly 31, 2020July 31, 2020Posted inAdvanced, PunctuationTags:accentjes, dunglish, engels, voorkomen1 Comment on Accents for emphasis

Brackets for alternatives

“A five-point scale of (strongly) disagree, neutral, (strongly) agree.” That makes no sense in English, where brackets add detail rather than expressing alternatives.

Posted byMike WilkinsonJuly 23, 2020Posted inAdvanced, Grammar, PunctuationTags:dunglish, engels, gebruik haakjes, haakjes, laten1 Comment on Brackets for alternatives

Comma splices

Separate sentences shouldn’t be glued together with commas, this is poor style.

Posted byMike WilkinsonJuly 20, 2020July 23, 2020Posted inAdvanced, Grammar, PunctuationTags:dubbele punt, dunglish, engels, komma, puntkommaLeave a comment on Comma splices

Ellipsis and so forth…

Using three dots – an ellipsis – to mean “et cetera” isn’t normal English punctuation.

Posted byMike WilkinsonJuly 8, 2020July 8, 2020Posted inAdvanced, Grammar, PunctuationTags:dunglish, ellipsis, engels, enzovoorts, et cetera, etc.Leave a comment on Ellipsis and so forth…

Posts navigation

1 2 Older posts

Site search

Advanced Dunglish, Blog at WordPress.com.