2020-11-26
ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด P – period of time
แนะนำการใช้ ตามที่ส่วนใหญ่ใช้ แต่ละท้องถิ่น
ความหมาย อาจผันแปร ตาม ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค
Dictionary.com
ออกเสียง period = ‘PEER-ee-uhd’
(US Eng. = Full stop)
Period of time
Dictionary.com
Are There One Or Two Spaces After A Period?
It’s the great generational debate …
There was a time when every period, question mark,
or exclamation point was followed by two spaces.
These days, depending on what you’re reading,
you can find either one or two spaces
between the end of one sentence and the beginning of another.
The use of single vs. double-spacing after periods
has become a great generational debate,
with everyone from Gen X on up
falling predominantly onto Team Double Space,
while Millennials and Gen Z fight on the side of the single space.
So, which side of the generational divide is in the right?
Two spaces were once the norm
Double-spacing after every period used to bestandard.
Before computers and word processors were prevalent,
most people relied on typewriters.
Once considered an advanced form of technology themselves,
older typewriters were known
to produce uneven or unpredictable line spacing.
A double space between the end of one sentence and the beginning of another helped to create some uniformity on the page,
and made typed pages easier to read.
As technology evolved,
the use of a double space to create the appearance of more even typeface declined,
and many media outlets stopped using it altogether.
Fun fact: not a single double space appears in this whole article.
Doubling down on the double space?
While a lot of hay is made
about using the number of spaces a person puts between sentences
to determine how old they are, it is actually not all that simple.
Whether you fall firmly on the side of the single space,
or you remain true to your double-space roots,
it actually has more to do with how
you initially learned to type than your age.
If you learned on a typewriter or word processor
you most likely fall into the Double Space Club.
For those who learned to type on a computer,
single-spacing has probably always been the norm
(and probably why single spacers find themselves so devout
about their spacing: it is the only method they have ever known).
Although there has been plenty of back-and-forth on the topic,
a recent study may have concluded
why many people still prefer seeing a double space between sentences: that extra space can help you read faster.
While it may only cut down on reading time by a few seconds, some people can find that time invaluable.
So, which is it?
According to the AP Stylebook, single-spacing iscorrect. The same goes for the Chicago Manual of Style. However, the Modern Language Association Style Center offers different advice, and suggests that writers use a single space after a period unless they have been explicitly told otherwise.
Since either way can be considered correct, depending on the audience you’re writing for, the right answer seems to be to err on the side of caution and give that space bar a single tap.
Not only is it the more widely acceptable method, it saves space (no pun intended) which can be especially important when working with limited character use—we’re looking at you, Twitter!
Dictionary.com
What Are The 6 Major Punctuation Marks?
What happens when you mix up your punctuation?
Well, there’s a million hilarious examples of grammatical mixups that point out the difference between
—for example, Let’s eat Grandma vs. Let’s eat, Grandma.
There’s even a grammar book named after the phrase
eats shoots and leaves,
which is what a panda does (as opposed to eats, shoots, and leaves).
What a difference a comma can make!
But what about the other punctuation marks?
The major punctuation marks are the period, comma, exclamation point, question mark, semicolon, and colon.
These marks organize sentences and give themstructure.
You’ve definitely seen them around,
but do you know how they’re supposed to be used?
The period
A period (.) ends a declarative sentence.
It appears immediately after the last letter of a sentence.
Sounds simple enough, right?
But there’s a great generational debate
about whether one space or two is best after a period
and before the first letter of the next sentence.
Still, using a period to end a sentence makes it complete.
- Sandra walked to school this morning.
You’ll also see periods used in abbreviations,
such as when United States is shortened to U.S.
and after a person’s initials (F.D.R.).
The comma
A comma (,) separates a series of independent sentences, nouns, adjectives, verbs, or phrases.
That sentence you just read was
a good example of commas separating nouns in a series.
When a comma connects two independent sentences,
you’ll usually see it with a conjunction (like and, but, or or).
For example:
- He went to the movies, and his wife went to the mall.
A comma can also be used to separate nonessential details in a sentence. For example:
- The boy, who has red hair, goes to my school.
Who has red hair is information that doesn’t change the meaning of the sentence if it’s removed.
Putting commas around an extra detail like this helps keep it from cluttering the sentence.
The exclamation point
An exclamation point (!) ends a sentence emphatically.
It replaces a period to express strong feelings,
like excitement, anger, or surprise.
Some sentences that tend to use exclamation points include:
- Help!
- Happy birthday!
- Get out!
- There’s a monster in the kitchen!
An exclamation mark may replace a question mark
when irony or an emphatic tone is meant:
- How could you!
The question mark
A question mark (?) is used at the end of
a sentence that asks a direct question.
For example:
- Where’s the library?
This one is pretty straightforward.
The semicolon
A semicolon (;) separates sentences
that are closely related but grammatically independent.
For example:
- My brother isn’t feeling well; he’s been sick for a week.
The two independent sentences could be separated by a period,
but the semicolon works here since the two sentences are closely related.
You can also use semicolons to separate
a list of items that contain commas.
For instance:
- I’ve been to Paris, France; London, England; Rome, Italy; and Madrid, Spain.
Imagine how confusing reading that would be
if there were commas where the semicolons are.
The colon
A colon (:) can introduce a list or a single item.
For example:
- I need a bunch of supplies for school: pencils, glue, crayons, and scissors.
Here’s an example of a colon introducing a single item:
- There’s one thing I want for my birthday: a car.
(May we suggest a more realistic series separated with commas instead?
The only things I want for my birthday are a car, some cash, and a waffle maker. See, what a difference a comma makes!)
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Choose the Right Synonym for period
Noun
mean a division of time.
PERIOD may designate an extent of time of any length.
periods of economic prosperity
EPOCH applies to a period begun or set off by some significant or striking quality, change, or series of events.
the steam engine marked a new epoch in industry
ERA suggests a period of history marked by a new or distinct order of things. the era of global communications
AGE is used frequently of a fairly definite period dominated by a prominent figure or feature. the age of Samuel Johnson
Choose the Right Synonym for period
PERIOD and AGE meana portion of time.
PERIOD can be used of any portion of time, no matter how long or short.
We waited a period of five minutes.
A new period of space exploration has begun.
AGE is used of a longer period of time that is associated with an important person or outstanding thing.
I'm reading about the age of Thomas Jefferson.
We live in the computer age.
Periods
What is a period?
The period (also known as a full stop, especially in British English)
is a punctuation mark ( . )
primarily used to indicate the end of a sentence.
It appears as a single dot on the bottom line of the text,
and it comes immediately after the last word of the sentence without a space.
There are also several minor uses for the period,
which we’ll look at later in this section.
Punctuating sentences
The most common use of periods is to punctuate the end of sentences. This occurs with almost all the types of sentences we use.
For example:
- “I run three miles every morning.” (declarative sentence)
- “I could study better if you turned down the music.” (conditional sentence)
- “Please start the car.” (imperative sentence)
Note that if we wanted to indicate an
especially strong emotion in any of the above sentences,
or else indicate that the speaker is shouting,
we would typically use an exclamation point instead.
For instance:
- “I run three miles every morning!”
- “I could study better if you turned down the music!”
- “Please start the car!”
However, this is based solely on the intention of the writer;
the form of the sentence itself doesn’t require that an exclamation point be used instead of a period.
Interrogative sentences (Questions)
The only type of sentence in which a period is not used is the interrogative sentence (a sentence that asks a question).
These sentences always use question marks rather than periods,
as in:
- “Would you like a bite of my sandwich?”
- “Where is the closest supermarket?”
- “Did you sleep well?”
Using periods with quotation marks
If a sentence uses quotation marks
to indicate something that another person has said,
and the quotation marks appear at the end of the sentence,
the period can appear in one of two places.
In American English, the punctuation used atthe end of direct speech always appears within the quotation marks.
For example:
- The CEO said, “This is a great day for the company.”
- Our five-year-old said that when she grows up she wants to be a “doctor and a pop star and a ballerina.”
However, in British English
(which also uses different rules for quotation marks),
periods that end quotations are usually placed outside the final quotation mark,
as in:
- The CEO said, ‘This is a great day for the company’.
- Our five-year-old said that when she grows up she wants to be a ‘doctor and a pop star and a ballerina’.
One vs. two spaces after a period
When we begin a new sentence after another one has ended,
we generally use a single space
between the period of the first sentence
and the first word of the second sentence.
However, at one point,
it was standard practice to add two spaces after the end of a sentence. This trend arose out of the use of manual typewriters
(in which the monotype font created a lack of space between periods and the first letter of the next sentence).
With the advent of word processor applications forcomputers,
this problem was eliminated, but some writers today persist in adding two spaces after a period.
While this continues to be a point of contention for some,
the definitive answer is that it is not only preferable
but correct to use only one space after the period of a sentence.
This is a point on which all modern grammar and style guides
(including this one) agree:
When beginning a new sentence after a period,
only use a single space.
Periods with abbreviations
While the period is most commonly used to mark the end of a sentence,
it is also used to mark abbreviations.
In addition to standard abbreviations
(words that are shortened by omitting one or more letters),
there are also three sub-categories
that can use periods: initials, acronyms, and initialisms.
However, unlike its use in punctuating the end of a sentence,
the use of a period with abbreviations is not asstrict or consistent,
often depending on the location
(i.e., American English vs. British English)
and preference of the writer, publisher, or style guide.
Abbreviations
We often use periods to indicate when a word has been abbreviated
(that is, has had letters omitted from it) ina sentence.
This period always appears at the very end of the abbreviated word.
For example:
- “Please cont. to page 41 for further instructions.” (abbreviation of continue)
- “Dr. Davis has been of immense service to the hospital.” (abbreviation of Doctor)
Note that
when an abbreviation ends a sentence,
the period that shortens the word also marks the end of the sentence
—that is, we do not use a second period.
If another punctuation mark (such as a comma or question mark)
is used after an abbreviated word,
it comes directly after the period.
For example:
- “Our offices are open each week Mon.–Fri.” (abbreviations of Monday and Friday)
- “My new house is on Lilac Ave., just across from the old courthouse.” (abbreviation of Avenue)
- “Are you returning to work in Feb.?” (abbreviation of February)
Titles in British English
Formal titles, such as Mr., Mrs., or Dr., are actually abbreviations,
but we usually only use them in their contracted forms in writing.
Because they are so common,
the period is usually left out in British English,
as the abbreviation does not need
to be indicated by punctuation to be understood.
It’s therefore common to read “Mr Jones,” “Mrs Smith,” or “Dr Casey”
(for example) in writing that uses British English styles.
In American English, however,
these abbreviated titles are still punctuatedwith periods.
Initials of names
Initials are a kind of abbreviation ofpeople’s names formed
from the first letter of each part of the name
(first, middle, and/or last name).
We usually mark each initial with a period.
For example:
- “Martin S. Smith, the renowned physicist, will be speaking here next month.”
If sequential parts of someone’s name are made intoinitials,
then a space will usually come after the period of the initial.
For example:
- “I love the writing of J. R. R. Tolkien.”
However, while some style guides recommend this spacing between letters, other style guides recommend not including spaces,
as in:
- “I love the writing of J.R.R. Tolkien.”
Whether to use spaces after the periods of initials
is largely a matter of personal preference,
but be sure to check the recommendations of your school’s or employer’s style guide.
(Note: It is also not uncommon to see multiple initials used without
either periods or spaces,
as in “JRR Tolkien,” but this usually occurs in less formal writing.)
Acronyms and Initialisms
Similar to initials,
acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations
of multiple words using just their initial letters.
Acronyms are distinguished by the fact that
they are read aloud as a single word.
Because of this,
they are usually (but not always) written without periods.
In some cases, the acronym has become so common
that the letters aren’t even capitalized anymore.
For example:
- “Scientists from NASA have confirmed the spacecraft’s location on Mars.” (acronym of “National Aeronautics and Space Administration”)
- “The officer went AWOL following the attack.” (acronym of “Absent Without Leave”)
- “I need those documents finished A.S.A.P.” (acronym of “As Soon As Possible”; also often written as ASAP, asap, and a.s.a.p.)
- “His scuba equipment turned out to be faulty.” (Scuba is actually an acronym of “self-contained underwater breathing apparatus,” but it is now written as a regular word.)
Initialisms are formed in the same way as acronyms,
but they are spoken aloud as individual letters rather than a single word. (However, because they are so similar in appearance to acronyms, initialisms are very often simplyreferred to as acronyms.)
Like acronyms, it is most common to write initialisms without periods.
However, in American English, it is also common to include periods between the letters of some initialisms.
This varies between style guides, and it is generally a matter of personal preference; whether you use periods in initialisms or not, be sure to be consistent.
Here are some examples of common initialisms
(some with periods, some without):
- “I grew up in the US, but I’ve lived in London since my early 20s.” (initialism of “United States”)
- “It took a long time, but I’ve finally earned my Ph.D.” (initialism of “Philosophiae Doctor,” Latin for “Doctor of Philosophy”)
- “I need to go to an ATM to get some cash.” (initialism of “Automated Teller Machine”)
- “The witness claimed to have seen a U.F.O. fly over the field last night.” (initialism of “Unidentified Flying Object”)
The decimal point
One final common use of the period is asa decimal point
—the dot that separates a whole number from itsdecimals.
For example:
- “I can’t believe he sold you that car for $450.50!”
- “Today’s Special: Two-course meal and a bottle of wine for two, only $45.95.”
- “We found that X equals 43,456.21.”
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language,
Period
Word History:
Many may have wondered
why the word period has the sense "punctuation mark ( . )"
as well as several senses having to do with time.
The answer to this question lies in one of the senses of the Greek word periodos from which our word is descended.
Periodos, made up of peri- "around," and hodos, "way,"
in addition to meaning such things
as "going around, way around, going around in a circle, circuit,"
and with regard to time, "cycle or period of time,"
referred in rhetoric
to "a group of words organically related in grammar and sense."
The Greek word was adopted into Latin as perihodos, which in the Medieval Latin period acquired a new sense related to its use in rhetoric, "a punctuation mark used at the end of a rhetorical period."
This sense is not recorded in English until the late 1500s, but the word had already entered Middle English in the 1400s as a borrowing from Old French in the sense "a cycle of recurrence of a disease."
American Heritage Dictionary
period
SYNONYMS: period, epoch, era, age, term.
These nouns refer to a portion or length of time.
Period is the most general: a short waiting period; one of the most difficult periods of her life; worked for a period of ten years; the Romantic period in music.
Epoch refers to a period regarded as beingremarkable or memorable: “We enter on an epoch of constitutional retrogression” (John R. Green).
An era is a period of time notable because ofnew or different aspects or events: “How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book” (Henry David Thoreau).
An age is usually a period marked by a particular distinctive characteristic: the age of Newton; the Iron Age. “These principles form the bright constellation which has . . . guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation” (Thomas Jefferson).
A term is a period of time to which limitshave been set: Senators are elected for a term of six years.
WORD HISTORY:
Perhaps more than once one may have wondered
why the word period has the sense “punctuation mark ( . )”
as well as some of its other senses having to do with time.
The answer to this question lies in the senses of the Greek word periodos from which our word is descended. Periodos, made up of peri-, “around,” and hodos, “way,” meant such things as “going round, way round, going round in a circle, circuit,” and with regard to time “cycle or period of time.” The word also meant “the period of menstruation.”
In rhetoric it referred to “a group of words organically related in grammar and sense.”
The Greek word was adopted into Latin as perihodos with only its rhetorical sense and one other sense, but in Medieval Latin it reacquired senses it had in Greek, such as “cycle,” and acquired a new sense, “a punctuation mark used at the end of a rhetorical period.”
Although this sense is recorded in Medieval Latin, it is not recorded in English until 1609. But the word period had entered Middle English from Medieval Latin and Old French, first beingrecorded in a work written around 1425 in the sense “a cycle of recurrence of a disease.”
