I often hear people confuse hyphens and dashes.
Problem:
A dash is not the same as a hyphen.
Explanation:
A dash is for setting off part of a sentence: Superman — known to some as “Clark Kent” — has a big red ‘S’ on his chest.
Among its many uses, a hyphen is for connecting two words: A dark-green Ferrari is not a typical sports car.
Solution:
Use a hyphen when connecting two words. Use a dash when setting off a part of a sentence.
I saw this yesterday on a History Channel program about Skylab.
Problem:
A comma is missing.
Explanation:
The television program was about Skylab.
As the program went to a commercial break, a multi-sentence blurb appeared on the screen, and the narrator read the blurb about Skylab.
One of the sentences was “It crashed in a remote area of Western Australia killing one cow.”
The narrator was smart enough to pause after he said “Australia”; otherwise, the sentence would have sounded odd.
Commas tell readers where to put pauses when speaking a sentence.
“It crashed in a remote area of Western Australia” is a complete sentence on its own, and “killing one cow” is an aside that adds information, so “Australia” should be immediately followed by a comma.
Look at these two sentences:
Sentence #1 means that Jim hit the man who was running from the police. In contrast, sentence #2 means that Jim hit the man while Jim was running from the police. See what a difference a comma makes?
Solution:
“It crashed in … Australia, killing one cow.”
I got this in an email message from Skype a couple of days ago.
Problem:
A contraction-forming apostrophe appears where it should not.
Explanation:
The word “it’s” is a contraction of “it is”; the apostrophe signifies the dropping of a letter (the “i” in “is”).
The required word is “its” (not “it’s”) because “its” is the possessive form of “it” (which refers to “Skype”).
Confusing “it’s” and “its” is a common English blunder.
A simple way to remember that “its” is the possessive form of “it” — a third-person pronoun — is to recognize that “his” is the possessive form of “he” — another third-person pronoun — and that neither “his” nor “its” has a possessive apostrophe.
Solution:
“Skype — social networking at its best”