It is surprising the number of people who still make grammatical mistakes even if they are in university or already graduated.
It is important that you stop making these mistakes. One day you will find a job and you cannot continue to make basic mistakes, such as incorrectly placing a hyphen or a comma. Get to know 4 grammatical errors that you must eradicate now:
Use of the comma
The comma must be used to:
1 – Isolate proper names related to a place followed by its respective date.
Example: Lisbon, November 27, 1991.
2 – Separate asymmetric coordinated prayers
Example: when the meeting started everyone presented themselves, discussed the pertinent issues, reaching a conclusion earlier than expected
3 – Separate coordinated union clauses initiated by adverse, alternative, conclusive or explanatory conjunctions.
Example: I urgently needed to make up my mind, or just work, or study.
4 – Isolate explanatory expressions, such as “ie”, “for example”, “ie”.
Example: I intend to dispatch the documents as soon as possible, that is, the day after tomorrow.
5 – Separate bets and vocations in a prayer.
Examples:
João, bring your certificate as soon as you can, as I need to give it to the doctor.
Pedro’s brother João started working yesterday.
6 – Separate adverbial adjunct starting or interspersed in the speech.
Example: at that time, there was greater interaction between people.
7 – Isolate interspersed sentences.
Example: We therefore need to think about the subject
8 – Indicate an ellipse.
Example: Most of the students were wearing red; João, blue.
9 – Separate terms in a sentence.
Example: I bought bananas, apples, grapes, strawberries and a watermelon.
10 – Separate subordinate explanatory adjective sentences.
Example: Camões, one of the greatest Portuguese poets, wrote Os Lusíadas.
Semicolon
The semicolon is used to:
1 – Separate very long sentences that already have commas.
“Sometimes, we also have the comfort of knowing that something that was said by chance helped someone to be reconciled with himself or with his life; to dream a little, to feel the urge to do a good thing. ”(Rubem Braga)
2 – Replace the comma, to have a longer pause.
I have a test tomorrow; but I didn’t study anything.
Hyphen
According to the New Orthographic Agreement of 2009, the hyphen is used when:
1- The 2nd element starts with h. Examples: unhygienic, panhellenism. With the exception of words that are already spoken without considering oh, such as: inhuman, dehumidify, unskillful, inhuman;
2 – The 2nd element begins with the same vowel with which the prefix or pseudo prefix ends. Examples: supra-articular, arch-brotherhood, self-observation, electro-optics, microwave, semi-internal;
3 – The first element ends in re and the second starts with the same consonant. Examples: hyper-refined, super-religious;
4 – With prefixes like: ex, sota, soto, vice, vizo, beyond, behind, just, without. Examples: ex-director, pilot outfit, overseas, newborn;
5 – In the case of the sub prefix, when it is followed by a word beginning with b, h or r. Examples: sub-base, sub-kingdom, sub-human;
6 – Indigenous words always carry hyphens, such as: amoré-graçu, anajá-mirim, andá-açu, capim-açu, Ceará-Mirim;
7 – In the case of the prefixes pan and circum, when followed by a word beginning with a vowel, h, m or n. Examples: circum-walled, pan-black, pan-American;
8 – In words composed by juxtaposition (that is, placed side by side, without changing any of the two words) that do not contain forms of connection, whose elements form a unity of different meaning when together and that maintain their own accent. For example, year means one thing; light means another. When juxtaposed, years and light have a third meaning: light year (and, therefore, a hyphen is used). Examples: light year, rainbow, decree-law, great-uncle, night watchman, Afro-Asiatic, dark blue, dropper, umbrella;
9 – In words that designate botanical or zoological species. Examples: cauliflower, fennel, green beans, teagrass, sweet pea, well-me-want, tern, water snake, well-te-vi;
10 – In phrases consecrated by use, such as: cologne, bow-of-the-old, pink, more-than-perfect, nest-egg, to the god-god, at point-blank range. (Words such as: weekend, owner of each, end of century) are not hyphenated.
Quotation marks
Be careful when using quotes. Don’t forget to always mention the sources. You should only use it when you are actually copying a part of a text. You don’t need to use quotation marks when you are paraphrasing a sentence or using another author’s idea, but you should always quote the sources.
