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Punctuation & How to Change the Meaning of a Sentence

Those little marks you put in sentences that are called "punctuation" may not seem all that important, but a misplaced comma or semicolon can totally alter the intended meaning of a sentence. For example, putting a comma after "roasts" in "Steve roasts cooks and jerks" changes the meaning of a sentence from being about someone who ridicules cooks and jerks to a description of someone who is a master of barbecue and Caribbean jerk cooking. There are a few ways you can have fun with punctuation and change the meaning of sentences or phrases.

Instructions

- 1
  Add and remove commas to see how they affect the sentence. For example, "Let's eat, everyone" becomes "Let's eat everyone" - changing the meaning of the sentence from a pleasant call to dinner to an expression of cannibalistic tendencies.
- 2
  Remove a colon from a headline and take a second look at the sentence. For example, "Spotted manatee found off South Carolina beach" becomes "Spotted: Manatee found off South Carolina beach." In other words, a headline proclaiming an amazing, undocumented animal is now about a rare but not unheard-of sighting.
- 3
  Add a question mark to the end of a sentence to change the tone. For example, a simple statement like, "He didn't mean to kill her" goes from an expression of confidence in the individual to a question meant for interrogation: "He didn't mean to kill her?"

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