Latest news with #punctuation
The Guardian
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘A-posh-trophe' joke wins London school pupils a posh trophy
A joke about punctuation has been chosen as the funniest in a competition run by the Beano comic. Year 5 pupils at Riverley primary school in Leyton, east London, won the accolade with their joke: What do you call the fanciest punctuation? An a-posh-trophe. Their class teacher, Maisha Mahfuza, was named Britain's funniest teacher. The winners will be featured in this week's 4,290th edition of the Beano, drawn by the renowned artist Nigel Parkinson A panel of the comic's expert gag makers narrowed down the wittiest submissions to their favourite 10 finalists before handing the final decision to a public vote. Mike Stirling, the director of mischief at the Beano, said: 'As the only comic where kids are in charge, Beano continues to celebrate childhood in all its mischievous, screen-free glory. This annual competition is just one way Beano will power summer with pure fun, spotlighting the next generation of comedy geniuses. 'This perfectly crafted joke is creative, mischievous and 100% funny. It had us laughing out loud.' Mahfuza said: 'Seeing our class and joke featured in Beano was surreal. Britain's Funniest Class competition is a fantastic way to spark laughter, boost creativity and build confidence in children. 'Learning should always come with a healthy dose of fun, and how many people can say they've spread a good giggle beyond the classroom to the whole nation?' Sign up to Bookmarks Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you after newsletter promotion The winning school will receive the official Beano 'Britain's Funniest Class' trophy, Gnasher badges and comic subscriptions for the whole class. Other jokes in the top 10 included: What's the cleverest school dinner? Maths potato; Why did the shark have stomach ache? Because it ate a school dinner; What's the difference between Dennis and Gnasher? Dennis wears shorts and Gnasher pants; What's the opposite of a dandelion? A BeanoTiger; and Why did the chicken cross the road? Be-CAAWWW-se.
Daily Mail
07-06-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
Gen Z says the em dash is the ‘coolest punctuation ever'
Gen Z: I am — and I don't say this lightly — so busy. Boomer: What's with all the dashes? Is Morse code having a moment? Em dashes are a vibe. One X user calls them the 'coolest punctuation ever' — the Charli XCX of grammar. Confusing and jarring? Sassy and smart — they draw attention. More like a fax machine: clunky, awkward and best left in the last century. The em dash is everywhere, according to The Washington Post, because it's ChatGPT's favourite punctuation mark. Is that a new Turing test component: asking if AI prefers dashes or colons? 'We — and ChatGPT — have a soft spot for the em dash,' an OpenAI employee told the Post. A journalist called it 'my emotional support punctuation mark'. Once used by Emily Dickinson in her poetry; now therapy for chatbots. Why the winky face? Is that a joke about my bad eye? No, I mean the ; It's actually called a semicolon and it's the 'most elegant and elusive of punctuation marks' to both The Spectator and myself. So jarring. You know they're used only half as much now as they were in 2000? Because of your generation's inability to practise decent grammar? Because the semicolon is old and stuffy. It's a monocle in punctuation form. Excuse me but I agree with The Spectator: 'Like napkins, black tie and having a glass of champagne before lunch, the semicolon remains a bulwark against civilisational decline.' Forget mad dictators and ravaging wars. Boomers say the semicolon will save us! I'm sorry that we value the English language. But I saw on X some old bloke named Kurt Vonnegut said semicolons 'represent absolutely nothing' and are only used to 'show you went to college'. I'm not taking literary advice from someone who calls the author of Slaughterhouse-Five 'some old bloke named Kurt'. Stop being aggy. You're giving hostile punctuator vibes. Is that the 2025-friendly way of calling someone a grammar Nazi? It's when you overuse punctuation so your texts look like they're from a thriller. How can a tiny mark come across as hostile? Take the Boomer obsession with ellipsis. Go on… Exactly what I mean! TikToker Elâ got 527,000 likes on her clip noting everyone over 60 insists on ending texts with '…' It softens the end of a sentence. It seems like you're planning something sinister. Eg 'My mum always texts me like 'dad's not home…'' And what's wrong with that? 'It makes it sound like she's buried him in the backyard.' Ironic from someone who thinks a skull emoji is an appropriate reaction to a joke. We've spoken about this, it means I'm dying from laughter. So what should I end my texts with? A full stop? If you want to be shady, sure. It's 'shady' to end a clause with good grammar? Full stops give such sus energy! According to Stylist, if someone uses a full stop 'they're angry and want you to know they're angry, but they're not in the mood for a direct confrontation'. Or maybe they're just proficient in English? Put it this way: if my mum texts saying 'I'm not annoyed.' I know to turn up with flowers and a bottle of Whispering Angel. It's three words and a dot, you're reading too much into it. No cap, I've had friendships end over a bitchy full stop instead of a kissy face. I'm not sure what 'no cap' means, but that really does bring things to a full stop. Your jokes are as cringey as your punctuation habits. This has got me thinking about the difference between your generation and the semicolon. Only one has valid use in the 21st century? Only one is capable of stringing together complex thoughts.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bridal bucket is the best wedding gift
Re wedding lists (The toilet roll wedding list – is this the least romantic gift request ever?, 20 May), when my parents announced their engagement in 1951, one of my mother's sisters, then on a low wage, bought a bucket. Each week on payday, she added some household item to it – a scrubbing brush, a mop, a floor cloth, shoe polish and brushes, cleaning products. It was the most useful wedding gift they received, according to my mother. Cliodhna Dempsey Bereldange, Luxembourg • 'We have created incentives to try to retain our most precious resource, which is our management team,' the chair of Thames Water is quoted as saying in your article (23 May). I would suggest their most precious resource is clean water. Their management is pretty inept if they don't realise people reckon their track record warrants no bonus. If anything, they should be paying fines for the DunnSt Andrews, Fife • I wholeheartedly agree with Lucy Mangan in her defence of the semicolon (Digested week, 23 May); however, I note with regret that she has not seen fit to use this valuable punctuation mark in her CopasBrentwood, Essex • At school in the 1950s, we were told that, if in doubt, we should read a sentence aloud and if a pause sounded right with a count to one, a comma was required, two – a semicolon, and three – a colon. It seemed to RowleyDidsbury, Manchester • Stand by for balaclavas becoming ubiquitous fashion wear (Live facial recognition cameras may become 'commonplace' as police use soars, 24 May).Colin Prower Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire • 'Artificial intelligence to play increasing role in armed forces, says defence secretary' (20 May). Could this be one small step on the road to the dystopia envisioned by the Terminator franchise?Tony RimmerLytham St Annes, Lancashire
The Guardian
26-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Bridal bucket is the best wedding gift
Re wedding lists (The toilet roll wedding list – is this the least romantic gift request ever?, 20 May), when my parents announced their engagement in 1951, one of my mother's sisters, then on a low wage, bought a bucket. Each week on payday, she added some household item to it – a scrubbing brush, a mop, a floor cloth, shoe polish and brushes, cleaning products. It was the most useful wedding gift they received, according to my mother. Cliodhna Dempsey Bereldange, Luxembourg 'We have created incentives to try to retain our most precious resource, which is our management team,' the chair of Thames Water is quoted as saying in your article (23 May). I would suggest their most precious resource is clean water. Their management is pretty inept if they don't realise people reckon their track record warrants no bonus. If anything, they should be paying fines for the DunnSt Andrews, Fife I wholeheartedly agree with Lucy Mangan in her defence of the semicolon (Digested week, 23 May); however, I note with regret that she has not seen fit to use this valuable punctuation mark in her CopasBrentwood, Essex At school in the 1950s, we were told that, if in doubt, we should read a sentence aloud and if a pause sounded right with a count to one, a comma was required, two – a semicolon, and three – a colon. It seemed to RowleyDidsbury, Manchester Stand by for balaclavas becoming ubiquitous fashion wear (Live facial recognition cameras may become 'commonplace' as police use soars, 24 May).Colin Prower Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire 'Artificial intelligence to play increasing role in armed forces, says defence secretary' (20 May). Could this be one small step on the road to the dystopia envisioned by the Terminator franchise?Tony RimmerLytham St Annes, Lancashire Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Using This Punctuation Mark May Reveal Your Age, Experts Say
Most of us are familiar with 'Boomer ellipses,' or the ominous '...' some texters use in place of a full stop or comma. Even double spacing can reveal your age; older typists prefer it, especially following a full stop, though even the staunchest defender of that grammar rule (style guide APA) conceded defeat in 2019. Speaking to HuffPost UK, language learning platform Babbel says that after pairing with the London Student Network, they found another potential generational divide. 'Our findings reveal that the semicolon is an 'endangered' punctuation mark - abandoned by many British writers who might have been expected to showcase its value, and often misunderstood by younger generations,' they said. Renaissance printer and typographer Aldus Manutius invented the semicolon mark in the 15th century; it appeared for the first time in 1494 in Manutius's De Aetna. It was meant to show a pause slightly longer than a comma but shorter than a short stop. Using Google Ngram Viewer, a tool developed with Harvard University to spot writing patterns over time, Babbel found that in 1781, the semicolon appeared once every 90 written words. By 2005, it was down to one semicolon every 205 words. In 2022, it was once every 390 words; a 47% decrease between 2000 and 2022 alone. 'There's definitely a generational shift at play,' linguistic and cultural expert at Babbel, Sofia Zambelli, tells HuffPost UK. 'According to our research, over half (54%) of young Britons admit they don't know the rules for using semicolons, and fewer than one in three use them at all.' So, the linguist says, 'While it's not a perfect litmus test, using a semicolon correctly or at all often correlates with age... Older generations, or those who grew up reading and writing longer-form texts, where semicolons were a stylistic staple, tend to use them more naturally.' She adds, 'Since around the year 2000, which is roughly when Gen Z was born, semicolon use in books has dropped significantly.' 28% of younger people reported never using a semicolon at all. 39% said they rarely used them. Only 11% of young people described themselves as regular semicolon users. Zambelli tells us that even though they might not use it very often, Gen Z still see the value in the semicolon. 'From our research, Gen Z's struggle with the semicolon clearly comes from a lack of confidence, rather than a rejection,' she shares. 67% of Gen Z say they see the value in the punctuation mark, despite not being inclined to use it often. 'That gap between perceived value and actual usage points to confusion rather than disinterest.' Still, Zambelli warns, the trend could be part of a vicious cycle. 'The less you see something used correctly, the less likely you are to instinctively understand how it works – a vicious cycle of sorts. 'If that trend continues, we could expect future generations to feel even less familiar with the semicolon – not because it has fallen out of favour, but because it has simply faded from view.' 'Nothing Says Over 50' Like Following This 1 Grammar Rule, Experts Say Here's Why Boomers Keep Using Ellipses In Text (And Why It Makes You Panic) What You Call This Time May Reveal Your Age, Language Expert Says
