[Eug]

Article

It could be the most costly piece of punctuation in Canada.

A grammatical blunder may force Rogers Communications Inc. to pay an extra $2.13-million to use utility poles in the Maritimes after the placement of a comma in a contract permitted the deal's cancellation.

Language buffs take note — Page 7 of the contract states: The agreement “shall continue in force for a period of five years from the date it is made, and thereafter for successive five year terms, unless and until terminated by one year prior notice in writing by either party.”

Rogers' intent in 2002 was to lock into a long-term deal of at least five years. But when regulators with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) parsed the wording, they reached another conclusion.

The validity of the contract and the millions of dollars at stake all came down to one point — the second comma in the sentence.

Had it not been there, the right to cancel wouldn't have applied to the first five years of the contract and Rogers would be protected from the higher rates it now faces.

Ooops.

[- - e r i k - -]

Capitalization is pretty important too:

I helped my uncle jack off a horse.

[Sage]

Yup, the regulators parsed that sentence as they should have. Whoever wrote that contract must not understand appositives (or if he does, then he made a really bad error).

[BikerJonTN]

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - -

Capitalization is pretty important too:

I helped my uncle jack off a horse.

To be properly understood, you need to do more than simply capitalize the proper name, "Jack."

I helped my uncle, Jack, off a horse.

[KeyLimePi]

Not necessarily. You only set the object off with commas if extra clarification is needed. In this example, if he is dicussing more than one uncle.

[Doofy]

Or:

I helped my Uncle Jack off a horse.

[Doofy]

BTW, thanks for the article Eug. That's going to come in very handy sometime.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - -

Capitalization is pretty important too:

I helped my uncle jack off a horse.

-t

[Rumor]

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - -

I helped my uncle jack off a horse.

Is your uncle Tom Green?

[analogika]

Originally Posted by Doofy

Or:

I helped my Uncle Jack off a horse.

Nope, that would be

"I helped Uncle Jack off a horse."

The whole phrase "Uncle Jack" in that case is a proper noun - his name. One wouldn't normally use the possessive "my" with a proper name.

Vis:

"I helped my Margaret off a horse."

[Ganesha]

Let's eat, grandma.
Let's, eat grandma.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by Ganesha

Let's, eat grandma.

That one doesn't exist.

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by analogika

Nope, that would be

"I helped Uncle Jack off a horse."

The whole phrase "Uncle Jack" in that case is a proper noun - his name. One wouldn't normally use the possessive "my" with a proper name.

Vis:

"I helped my Margaret off a horse."

The "my" connotes affection or closeness.

[the macimum]

Wow, this is a great reference forum. Thanks guys!

[Busemann]

Originally Posted by KeyLimePi

Not necessarily. You only set the object off with commas if extra clarification is needed. In this example, if he is dicussing more than one uncle.

Isn't it the other way around?

I helped my uncle, Jack, off a horse. --> Emphasizes that he helped his uncle, who happens to be named Jack (he is likely to only have one uncle)

I helped uncle Jack off a horse. --> Emphasizes that he helped Uncle Jack (he is likely to have several uncles)

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[analogika]

Ah, indeed, you're right.

I helped my uncle Jack off a horse the other day. My uncle John fell off on his own.

That works.

[christ]

If my uncle was jacking off a horse I wouldn't help him.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by analogika

Nope, that would be

"I helped Uncle Jack off a horse."

The whole phrase "Uncle Jack" in that case is a proper noun - his name. One wouldn't normally use the possessive "my" with a proper name.

Unless you're in England, speaking English.

[ghporter]

Wow, Eug. I thought Rogers was smarter than that. For years they hosed most of their broadband customers with high rates AND poor service (I've been watching the Networking forum since the begining of the century) and now this. What does karma sound like? An erroneously placed comma, that's what.