June 2009 ACT English Discussion

<p>i put bicycles. I put the one with no commas, I believe.</p>

<p>whew~ i put it with no commas too
I was soo worried about that question. Thankss</p>

<p>Anyone wanna confirm or deny the answer to the hyphen question. The sentence was close to what I have below:</p>

<p>I enjoyed my surroundings (–not by bike, but by luigi.)</p>

<p>A. No change
B. not by bike but by luigi</p>

<p>I have seen some ppl say the hyphen one was correct, but I disagree for two reasons.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>The hyphen wasnt really needed because it really wasnt that noticable of a shift in thought. I mean you probably could have it either way, but personally I wouldn’t use a hyphen there.</p></li>
<li><p>So, because there is not huge shift in thought, the hyphen doesnt “make or break” either of the “top two” answer choices. However, the hyphen choice has a comma between bike and but. The comma, though, wasnt necessary for any reason that I can see. So, choice B was correct?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>So, am I going wrong somewhere?</p>

<p>I think this one was like a question where it was asking you to separate the non restrictive clause, kind of like with two commas but with a hyphen and a comma this time. I don’t know if that is grammatically correct, but thats how i interpreted it.</p>

<p>AcLuo-</p>

<p>Thats an interesting idea. If you are correct, though, that would be the first time I have ever seen anyone, let alone the ACT, use a comma and a hyphen to offset a nonrestrictive clause. I mean wouldnt you use either two commas or two hyphens to do that?</p>

<p>I thought you always used an comma with but except when you use it in a case similar to this:</p>

<p>The essay was [insert adjective] but [insert another adjective].</p>

<p>I really think the dash and comma are correct.</p>

<p>Two Independent Clauses: ,conjunction or ; or blah blah period blah blah</p>

<p>Dependent and Independent: Just the conjunction no comma. Or just the comma no conjunction.</p>

<p>rtgrove</p>

<p>Im not 100% sure it is correct either, It was just my educated guess. I have never seen anything like that.</p>

<p>AcLuo-</p>

<p>Idk…I think the hyphen was probably right because it looks like a majority of the people on this forum said that it was correct. So, ya idk I guess I am just tryin to find out why.</p>