Full video

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There is only one mistake

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in this text here.

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Can you spot it? If you can't spot any

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mistakes in that text, or if you think

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you've spotted more than one,

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you might feel a bit confused. Only

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truly advanced English learners will

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spot the one mistake.

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Let's take a closer look.

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As I read, listen and read along with

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me.

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Try to find the mistake. Have you ever

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been judged for your unusual food

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preferences?

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You're not alone.

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While the pineapple on pizza debate is a

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classic,

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far stranger combinations exist, and

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they work incredibly well.

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Many people swear by strawberries dipped

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in balsamic vinegar, which enhances the

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fruit's natural sweetness.

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Peanut butter and pickles, or tomatoes

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with milk. They sound wrong until you

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try them.

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My personal favorite is watermelon with

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feta cheese.

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That sweetness combined with a tang is

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just delicious. Next time someone

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criticizes your weird snack, remember

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that adventurous eaters often discover

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the best culinary secrets. Okay, I'm

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sure a lot of you have worked it out by

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now.

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The one mistake

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is punctuation. So, technically, there's

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one type of mistake.

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There are actually seven individual

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punctuation mistakes in that text. In

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this video, we're going to correct the

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text and see just how important

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punctuation can be. I've also created a

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free PDF that goes with today's lesson.

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It contains all of the information we

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covered today, plus some extra tips and

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a bonus section with some jokes about

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punctuation. And I promise they are

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actually funny. To download that PDF for

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free, just click on the link in the

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description box or scan that QR code

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there. You join my mailing list and I'll

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send it straight to your email. Okay,

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let's go through each line and find the

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mistakes together. Okay, first line. Are

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there any punctuation mistakes? Here.

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Think long and hard. Have you ever been

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judged for your unusual food

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preferences? Question mark.

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You're not alone. Nope. That's all fine.

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We have a question mark at the end of a

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question. And what do we call the line

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with the dot below it after alone?

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It's an exclamation mark or exclamation

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point. Exclamations are short words or

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phrases you say or shout to show

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emotion. They're more common in informal

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writing.

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Try not to use too many or it will seem

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like you're shouting all the time.

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Okay, next line. There's one mistake

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here. While the pineapple on pizza

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debate is a classic, comma,

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far stranger combinations exist,

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semicolon, and they work incredibly

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well. Well, what's that funny looking

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symbol after exist?

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It's a semicolon and unfortunately it

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doesn't belong there.

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Now, semicolons aren't that common in

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English and using them correctly is

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quite tricky. So, we'll focus on one

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rule here.

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Semicolons join two related independent

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clauses. They can replace coordinating

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conjunctions like and, but, and or.

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We don't use those words plus a

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semicolon. It's a bit like saying and

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and or but but. We don't need both. So,

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we could have

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Far stranger combinations exist

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semicolon, they work incredibly well.

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Or Far stranger combinations exist and

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they work incredibly well. The second is

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the most natural option. You can use a

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comma before and there, but it's

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optional and often not used in British

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English. Moving on to the next line. Two

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mistakes here. Try to find them. Many

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people swear by strawberries dipped in

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balsamic vinegar, which enhances the

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fruit's natural sweetness. Full stop.

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Honestly, that sounds delicious. Let me

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know if you've tried it.

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Okay, punctuation.

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We're missing a comma before which.

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Here, which introduces a non-defining

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relative clause. And we use a comma

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before these types of clauses.

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In speech, commas tend to indicate a

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slight pause. In that sentence, the

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missing comma probably didn't cause you

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much trouble, but commas or lack of

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commas can completely change what you're

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trying to say.

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What's going on here? Take a look at

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this.

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Let's walk Grandpa.

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It seems a bit like you're going to put

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Grandpa on a lead and walk him like a

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dog. Poor Grandpa.

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Add a comma before Grandpa and it

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becomes a suggestion.

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Let's walk, Grandpa. Did you hear that

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slight pause?

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It's more like, let's walk, not drive,

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Grandpa. In spoken language, it's

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important to pause slightly before

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Grandpa to make sure our meaning is

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clear. The second mistake was with

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fruits.

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The natural sweetness belongs to the

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fruit. So, we should have an apostrophe

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before the S to indicate a sort of

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possession. We could reword it as which

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enhances the natural sweetness of the

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fruit. Now, I have a really fun fact for

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you.

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Native speakers often incorrectly add

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apostrophes before a plural s.

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[clears throat]

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Look here.

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2 kilos with apostrophe s of apples with

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apostrophe s. New delivery

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of carrots. Another unnecessary

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apostrophe in carrots. And here's a fun

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fact. This is so common in shops that

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it's called the greengrocer's apostrophe

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in British English. It's definitely not

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just greengrocers who are guilty of this

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though.

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Remember, if you struggle with how to

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use any of this punctuation, or you'd

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like to see all of the information

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written down and get my best punctuation

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jokes, download the PDF that goes with

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this lesson. It's free. The link is in

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the description. Or you can scan that QR

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code there. Okay, next sentence. Is

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there anything wrong here? Peanut butter

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and pickles or tomatoes with milk dot

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dot.

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They sound wrong until you try them.

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Okay, I'm not sure about those food

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combinations. And there is a punctuation

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mistake with the two dots after milk.

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Now, we have a couple of options. We

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could remove just one, creating a full

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stop, and then capitalize

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the T in they. But, another option is to

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add one more dot to form an ellipsis. An

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ellipsis has three dots in English, not

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two, not four.

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Some style guides recommend a space

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after the ellipsis, but others don't. I

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personally tend to use one. I think it

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looks smart. Here, the ellipsis

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represents a short pause, but it's often

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used to build suspense. Now, is there a

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mistake here?

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My personal favorite is watermelon with

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feta cheese. Semicolon. That sweetness

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combined with a tang is just delicious.

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Full stop. Nope, there's no mistake. The

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semicolon is used correctly and the

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combination of feta and watermelon is

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genuinely delicious. It's one of my

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favorite summer salads. Try adding mint

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as well if you really want to go crazy.

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Back to semicolons. The semicolon here

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introduces a related independent clause

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and there's no coordinating conjunction

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to worry about. Okay, things started to

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go really wrong in our final sentence.

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There were

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three mistakes in our final sentence.

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Can you find and correct them all? Next

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time someone criticizes your weird

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snack, colon, remember that adventurous

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eaters often discover the best culinary

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secrets. Okay, and this one was a little

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hard for me to read out. We have the

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most obvious ones if you are reading the

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screen right now. I know some of you

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like to listen to my videos. The missing

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capital letter at the beginning of the

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word next and the missing full stop at

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the end after secrets. But, the other

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mistake is in those two dots, one on top

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of the other.

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This is a punctuation mark called a

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colon.

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Colons can be used to introduce lists,

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explanations, and quotations among many

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other things. We'll concentrate on what

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we have in front of us and the key here

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is that colons should appear after an

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independent clause.

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But, next time someone criticizes your

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weird snack is a dependent clause. So,

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it shouldn't be followed by a colon to

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link it to another clause.

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Instead, we could have a comma after

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snack. Or we could turn the first part

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into an independent clause. Next time

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someone criticizes your weird snack,

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comma, do this. Colon. Or here's what to

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do next time someone criticizes your

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weird snack. Colon. So that's it. We've

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corrected all seven punctuation

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mistakes. I hope you've seen how

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important punctuation can be. And now

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I'm going to ask you to do two things.

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One, write a sentence or two in the

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comments telling me if you've tried any

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of these combinations. Or if you have

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any other favorite weird food

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combinations. Try to use the correct

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punctuation.

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And second thing, I need you to go and

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try watermelon with feta cheese. You

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won't regret it. Don't forget to

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download the PDF for today's video. The

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link's in the description or you can

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scan the QR code there. I will see you

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in the next video. Bye.

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>> [music]

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