11 Plus Exams Forum

This sentence is taken from a punctuation exercise in the 11+ for Essex.


Pelagia was amused by the situation not so the cat

Can anyone shed any light on the correct punctuation mark between situation and not?

The answer sheet has a dash.

Could either a comma or a colon have been used?

brackets?

A definite no to the comma, a more cautious no to the colon. Personally I would go for a semi-colon; the dash looks like a copout to me.

I would go for the cop out I reckon, not perfect but not incorrect...

Semicolon is incorrect here as "not so the cat" cannot stand alone.

Why is the comma wrong? I would really like to know. I was never taught this at school and have read both askoxford and Fowlers and cannot see why.

my first reaction was comma moved, as a sort of pause for breath. If it had been me in the test i think I would have used a comma actually

My reaction was a comma too. I spent 8 years involved with the publishing industry and OH copyedited for most of that time. He thought colon; I thought comma. Our modern DC both thought dash!

I probably wouldn't get level 4 in my sats, I tend to go for short sentences rather than complex ones.

Having spent years being told off for starting sentences with however I find it hard to encourage children to do so.

What's wrong with starting a sentence with 'however'?

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