comma vs dash

[Tan Elaine]

1. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.

2. Friends, Romans, countrymen -- lend me your ears.

Is it better to use a comma or a dash after 'countrymen'?

Thanks in advance..

 

[Rover_KE]

I consider the comma to be correct.

Rover

 

[bhaisahab]

I would use a semicolon.

 

[2006]

I would use a semicolon. The sentence already has commas serving in another role.

 

[Rover_KE]

I would not use a semicolon as 'Friends, Romans, countymen' is not a clause.

Rover

 

[2006]

[QUOTE=Rover_KE;651346]I would not use a semicolon as 'Friends, Romans, countymen' is not a clause.

Rover[/QUOTE]

That doesn't matter, in my opinion.

'I visited Cologne, Germany; Vienna, Austria; and Barcelona, Spain.'
You can't just have a string of commas. The commas need help in making it clear that you are talking about cities and countries.

 

[BobK]

1. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.

2. Friends, Romans, countrymen -- lend me your ears.

Is it better to use a comma or a dash after 'countrymen'?

Thanks in advance..

I bet Shakespeare used a dash, if he used anything at all ;-) But as you'll have noticed, Tan Elaine, opinions differ. All the opinions so far have quietly ignored the dash - which looks fine to me (though not really in a monospaced font, which doesn't distinguish between an en-dash and a hyphen).

b
PS To produce a proper en-dash in Word, hold down <ctrl> and type the hyphen on the mini-keypad; if you have a laptop, then you can do something with the <Fn> key, but life's too short.

 

[Tan Elaine]

Thanks to all the members who have replied to my post.:-D