Hello, everyone, and welcome back to my channel, Sparkle
English, where I teach you how to improve your level of
English. In today's video, we are going to practice our
punctuation skills. I'm going to read a short story to you
that has many different punctuation errors. You have
to correct the punctuation of the short story. There are
three short pages, and after each page, you will have 15
seconds to correct the punctuation. You can pause the
video if you need more time. Let's get started. My Hectic
Day. It was a crazy day, I'm not sure where to start my
story. I woke up hungry and exhausted after my long
flight. But I knew I needed to get a lot of work done. I
wrote out a list of all the things I had to accomplish. I
needed to go shopping, clean the house, prepare the
appetizers for the party and create a playlist of 80s
music.
Okay, so let's start on the punctuation errors. First,
this is an error here. This comma after it was a crazy
day. This is called a comma splice. When you combine two
independent clauses together with a comma, it's a comma
splice. It's incorrect. You have to change this to a
period or to a semicolon. The next error is this comma here.
I woke up hungry comma and exhausted. We don't use a
comma here. I woke up hungry and exhausted after my long
flight. Then we use a comma. But I knew I needed to get a
lot of work done. We have the comma before the conjunction
but because this conjunction joins two independent clauses.
The next error we have is I needed to go shopping comma,
clean the house comma, prepare the appetizers, comma for the
party. This comma here is not necessary. It's incorrect.
Prepare the appetizers for the party. That is a little
phrase. We are combining a series of phrases with commas
and prepare the appetizers for the party is a phrase. It's
all together. And finally, this is a very common mistake.
We don't write 80s with the apostrophe after the zero. You
would write 80s like this. 90s. Some people will write it
like this without an apostrophe. And some will
write the apostrophe before 80s because it's short for
1980s. However, do not put the apostrophe after the zero.
Let's do the next page. But everything went wrong about an
hour after I started preparing. First of all, my
boyfriend called me. He said he was ill and wouldn't be
able to make it to the party. After that, I went shopping at
the supermarket. I put everything I needed in my
shopping cart and was ready to check out. However, I forgot
my credit card at home. I had to return home, grab my credit
card, find all the groceries again, and purchase them.
So the first comma we need to add is after first of all.
This is an introductory element. First of all, comma,
my boyfriend called me. He said he was ill and wouldn't
be able to make it to the party. This comma before the
conjunction and is incorrect. That is because "wouldn't be
able to make it to the party" is not an independent clause.
If we had comma and ... and then he, it would be okay to
use a comma because "he wouldn't be able to make it to
the party" is an independent clause. But without he, it is
not an independent clause. So we do not have a comma before
the conjunction. After that, comma. Again, after that is
another introductory element. After that, I went shopping at
the supermarket. Here we have to put a period after the T
and then a space. We have to put a period after
supermarket, then a space and then I. We need to start a new
sentence. I put everything I needed in my shopping cart and
was ready to check out. Again, this comma before and is
incorrect. Because there is no subject before was. If this
had a comma, and I was ready to check out, it would be
correct. But this is not an independent clause without I.
However, I forgot my credit card at home. I had to return
home, comma, grab my credit card, find all the groceries
again and purchase them. We add a comma here to separate
return home and grab my credit card. Because we are listing
off a series of phrases. And the last page. By this point,
I only had two hours to clean the house and prepare all the
appetizers for the party. I wanted to make my mom's famous
meatball recipe. You won't believe it, but my electricity
went out. I couldn't use the stove or oven to prepare the
food for my guests. I called up my friends and canceled the
party. I guess I'll be listening to my 80s playlist
alone tonight.
Okay, so in the first paragraph, we have to add a
comma after by this point. By this point is an introductory
element. By this point, comma, I only had two hours to clean
the house and prepare all the appetizers for the party. I
wanted to make my mom's famous meatball recipe. Here we are
missing an apostrophe. My mom, apostrophe s. My mom's famous
meatball recipe. And then we're forgetting a period here
to end the sentence. You won't believe it, but my electricity
went out. Here we have a semicolon. This is incorrect.
We just need a comma here. Because we are combining two
independent clauses. My electricity went out, and you
won't believe it. If we removed the word but, you
won't believe it; my electricity went out. That
would be okay. But with the conjunction but, we need to
use the comma to join these two independent clauses
together. Here, I called up my friends and canceled the
party. This is not a question. So we don't use a question
mark. You just use a period or full stop. I guess I'll be
listening to my 80s playlist alone tonight. That is
correct. Again 80s is written like this, or like this. Both
are correct. Okay, so I want you to let me know how you did
in the comments section. Did you get many of these correct?
Or did you struggle with any of them? If you want more
lessons on how to improve and master your punctuation, make
sure to go to the description below this video and watch all
of my different punctuation lessons. Thank you for
watching. Make sure to subscribe to Sparkle English
for more videos like this one. And I will see you in my next lesson.