Good Sentences That Can Be Funny if You Insert a Comma in Different Ways

As anyone learning a language will know, in that location's a lot to grasp and remember.

In English language, the rules of grammar are one of the hardest aspects with which to get to grips, and some grammar rules fifty-fifty elude native speakers. A expert way to principal them is to use humour: at that place are enough of grammar jokes and conundrums out in that location that volition help you learn the rules. Hither are some of our favourites.

1. What'south the difference between a true cat and a comma?

We outset with a trivial rhyme to assist y'all remember what commas are.
A true cat has claws at the ends of its paws and a comma is a pause at the terminate of a clause.
Commas will be cropping upwardly a few more times in this commodity, and so take note!

2. One niggling comma makes all the departure

Freddie Mercury was not asking his partner about the name of an object he couldn't remember.

There are lots of jokes and other illustrations of how of import commas are. They have the potential to alter the significant of a sentence completely, as the adjacent few examples show.
One humorous illustration of what divergence a comma makes is as follows:
A comma is the difference between "What is this matter called love?" and "What is this thing called, love?"
"What is this thing called love?" (without the comma) is a rhetorical question and a paraphrase of the lyric of a pop song by Queen (Crazy Petty Thing Chosen Love), merely add a comma earlier the "love", and y'all plow it into a question that one might inquire one's other half (addressing them equally "love", a term of endearment) when asking what an object (a "fiddling thing") is called.

3. Commas relieve lives

Various jokes play on the importance of commas past pointing out that they can "save lives". See the divergence between versions one and two below:

1. Some people savour cooking, their families, and their dogs.
2. Some people savor cooking their families and their dogs.

The showtime one, correctly punctuated, provides a list of things people savour. Remove the punctuation, and yous would be understood to enjoy cooking your family and dog for dinner.

Grandma would like y'all to watch your commas.

Some other joke that highlights the importance of adequate punctuation in English is:
"Let'south consume, Grandma."
With the comma, these words bespeak that the speaker is talking to their grandma and suggesting that they eat dinner. Watch what happens when you remove the comma:
"Permit'due south eat Grandma."
Without the comma, the speaker is suggesting that they eat their grandma!
At that place's also a popular cyberspace meme depicting seals photoshopped onto a nightclub dancefloor. The caption is "Finish clubbing, infant seals", with the subtitle, "Once more, punctuation makes all the difference". That'south because when y'all remove the comma, information technology stops being about seals in nightclubs and starts beingness rather more brutal.

4. "Only" is a more than significant word than ane might think

Exactly how does she feel virtually him?

This ane isn't a joke per se, but it will certainly make you think about the subtle nuances of the English language and how punctuation can alter the pregnant – with the result that simply ordering your sentence in the wrong way could hateful that you say something quite different to what you intended. Expect at the following judgement.
"She told him that she loved him."
At present let'southward expect at how the pregnant is changed just past adding the give-and-take "merely" into different parts of the sentence. Read these sentences aloud and meet how you subtly change the intonation according to where the 'simply' is placed.
"She only told him that she loved him." The emphasis with this diction is on the give-and-take "simply", and adding the word "but" in this part of the judgement results in the implication that he was upset, or that he had overreacted to what he had been told; one might expect the preceding sentence to say something like, "He stormed angrily out of the room. She hadn't said anything bad – she only told him that she loved him."
"She told merely him that she loved him." Worded like this, the discussion "only" implies that she might have told others that she loved them, too. The emphasis in the sentence changes to the first "him".
"She told him only that she loved him." Now the emphasis shifts back to the "only", and implies that she could accept told him other things, but that she only told him this particular thing.
"She told him that only she loved him." This diction places the emphasis on the "she", implying that others could love him, merely only she does.
"She told him that she only loved him." This time, the emphasis falls on the final "him"; she's telling him that he is the only one she loves, the implication being that she doesn't love anyone else. Alternatively, a strict reading implies that while she loves him, that is in some mode insufficient – and then she might exist telling him that although she loves him, for their relationship to become any further, she needs to respect him as well.
"She told him that she loved only him." Finally, this wording places the accent on the last "him" once again, implying that she could love others.
This example shows the importance of intonation in the English language, as well as the advisable ordering of a sentence.

v. Getting in a muddle with dangling modifiers

They don't appear to have spears…

If the previous example left you in any doubt that irresolute the order of a sentence tin can drastically alter the pregnant, see if you can spot what's incorrect with the following sentence:
"Early on men hunted mammoths armed with spears."
While we know what the writer was getting at here – that early men used spears to hunt mammoths – the style in which the sentence is ordered makes it audio equally though it is the mammoths who were armed with spears. A better word order for this sentence would exist: "Armed with spears, early men hunted mammoths." Or: "Early men armed themselves with spears to hunt mammoths."
Such misunderstandings ascend from what'southward known every bit dangling or misplaced modifiers.
"I found my missing hat cleaning my room."
"I saw lots of horses on holiday in Kingdom of spain."
These are missing the discussion "while", with the result that it sounds as though the lid was cleaning the room and the horses were on vacation in Spain. Adding "while" clarifies the state of affairs: "I constitute my missing hat while cleaning my room"; "I saw lots of horses while on holiday in Spain."

6. Remembering your pronouns

If you lot're ever having difficulty remembering what a pronoun is, remind yourself of this joke:
When I was a child, my teacher looked my way and said "Name 2 pronouns." I said, "Who, me?"
A pronoun is used in identify of a noun.

7. Who versus whom

Knock knock jokes are a great insight into English language puns.

On the subject of pronouns, many people have trouble knowing whether to say "who" or "whom". Here'south a 'knock knock' joke that revolves around this distinction.
Knock knock.
Who'due south there?
To.
To who?
It'southward to whom!
The technical difference is that "who" is "subjective" and "whom" is "objective"; what this means is that "who" refers to the field of study of the judgement and "whom" to the object. If you have difficulty knowing which to use, there's a elementary way of remembering by replacing the "who" or "whom" with "he", "him" or "them"; if it ends in an "M", the pronoun will be "whom". Let's say you don't know whether to fill in this gap with "who" or "whom":
"___ does this vest to?"
The answer to this question would exist "it belongs to him", so it's "whom" – both end in the letter "Chiliad". To give a couple more examples:
"___ are you going to invite?" (Respond: "I'thousand going to invite him" or "them", both ending in "K", so it's "whom".)
"Is he ___ he says he is?" (Answer: the pronoun refers to "he", then it'south "Is he who he says he is?")
"___ is responsible for this?" (Respond: "he" is responsible, and so it'southward "who".)

8. How to utilise the passive voice

'The bar was walked into' also ends in an awkward preposition.

"Such and such walked into a bar" jokes are very popular in the UK, and this very elementary i will help you remember how to employ the passive voice and how information technology differs from the active vocalism.
The bar was walked into past the passive voice.
The passive vocalization is when the bailiwick of the sentence – in this case the bar – is acted upon, rather than doing the acting. The normal format of these jokes uses the active voice, with the bar every bit the object rather than the subject field. To give you another case:
"John is baking a cake for Jane." (Active)
"A cake is being baked by John for Jane." (Passive)
As a general rule, it's meliorate to employ the active vox when writing: it gives your writing more than life and immediacy, while the passive vox can sound stilted and wearisome. If you grab yourself using it (having remembered how to tell the difference using the joke above!), reword your writing into the active voice to go far more interesting.

9. The importance of punctuation

There's a joke that describes a instructor writing on the board, "A woman without her human is aught." She asks a student to add punctuation to this sentence, whereupon a male child adds commas to create the post-obit judgement:
"A woman, without her human, is aught."
The teacher corrects this to:
"A woman: without her, man is nothing."
This humorous example shows that punctuation tin can completely modify the meaning of a sentence, and so that you can use the same words merely mean totally contrary things according to how y'all punctuate them. If you lot say these sentences out loud, you'll besides find that the punctuation changes the way you lot say them, by calculation meaningful pauses; the outset judgement uses commas to add a clause, "without her man"; the 2d one uses a colon to create a longer break, with the comma breaking the sentence in a different place and fundamentally altering the meaning in the process.

10. Think apostrophes don't thing? Call back once again!

Just whose dogs are these, anyhow?

Few people seem to empathise how to use apostrophes here in the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland, with some fifty-fifty advocating their abolition. To eradicate the apostrophe would exist a big mistake, however, as they make a big difference, as the post-obit instance shows. Information technology's not a joke, exactly, only it's a grammar puzzler that highlights why we need apostrophes.
My blood brother'southward friend's dogs (this refers to the dogs belonging to the friend of 1 brother).
My brother's friends' dogs (the dogs belonging to the friends of one brother).
My brothers' friend'southward dogs (the dogs belonging to the friend of more than one blood brother).
My brothers' friends' dogs (the dogs belonging to the friends of more than one blood brother).
Information technology's only the positioning of the apostrophes hither that clarifies what you're proverb; the wording is otherwise exactly the same.

eleven. The Oxford Comma

The OUP has consistently defended the Oxford comma.

The Oxford comma is a curious thing. It's the comma one uses before the last item in a list, such equally:
"Please can y'all buy me some eggs, flour, and milk."
It gets its name from Oxford Academy Press, a publishing business firm that champions its use to the point that information technology fifty-fifty includes an Oxford comma in job titles (to give a made-upward example, "Marketing, Social Media, and Blogging Officer"). Its employ is contested, with grammar purists arguing that information technology'due south essential for clarity, and those who take a more modern approach to grammar arguing that it sounds pompous, disrupts the flow of a sentence and is unnecessary because people understand what yous mean without information technology. There are certainly arguments on both sides, and there are instances in which it's unnecessary. Just in that location are occasions on which it'southward required, every bit to leave it out tin can effect in confusion. Here's a joke to illustrate why.
With the Oxford Comma: "We invited the dogs, William, and Harry."
Without the Oxford Comma: "We invited the dogs, William and Harry."
In the offset version, information technology'southward clear that we're talking about two people called William and Harry too as more than one dog. In the second version, all the same, the lack of Oxford comma makes it sound every bit though the dogs' names are William and Harry. Another popular internet explanation of the Oxford comma highlights the difference between asking for "eggs, toast, and orange juice" and "eggs, toast and orange juice" – the latter making it sound as though you desire your orange juice on the toast. Amend not get out that Oxford comma out after all!

Prototype credits: banner; Freddie Mercury; grandma; romantic couple; mammoths; door knocker; bar; dogs; OUP.

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Source: https://www.oxford-royale.com/articles/11-great-jokes-remember-english-grammar-rules/

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