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TARDIS Wiki Basic Grammar Guide

This is a basic guide to general grammar, punctuation and spelling that is often used on the TARDIS Wiki and in general English.

Punctuation

Apostrophe

The apostrophe is a very useful piece of punctuation, though it is sometimes misused in article titles, infoboxes and the text of articles.

An apostrophe is used to signify possession and to indicate the joining of two words.

Possession

In this case the apostrophe signifies possession for example:

• The Doctor's TARDIS materialised
• The Dalek's creator, Davros, was a Kaled

In both examples the apostrophe and the letter S signify possession of the noun that follows. Since the Doctor owns his TARDIS, it is the Doctor's TARDIS.

If the possessor's name ends in an S or the sound of the letter S, X or Z, the possessive form of their name ends on an apostrophe. For example:

• The TARDIS' defences rather than the TARDIS's defences
• Stevens' will rather than Stevens's will
• Drax' ambition rather than Drax's ambition
• The fez' destruction rather than the fez's destruction

Contraction

An apostrophe is also used to indicate the joining of two words into a contracted single word. Positive contractions are slightly more straightforward than negative ones. In positive contractions, the apostrophe replaces letters and spaces that come sequentially in the two-word original.

For instance:

• They're is a contraction of they are.
• We're is a contraction of we are.
• You're is a contraction of you are.

In all these cases the apostrophe stands for the separating space, plus the "a" in "are".

However, with negative contractions, the apostrophe never takes the place of the space at all. Isn't is a contraction of is not, with the apostrophe only contracting the letter O.

This is also seen in: shouldn't, couldn't, wouldn't and needn't — contractions of should not, could not, would not and need not.

Examples of usage

If you mean to use a contraction, it's very important that you include the apostrophe. Failing to spell and punctuate the contraction properly can yield highly confusing results.

Consider the following example:

"We're never going to make it in time!"

This is a full and proper sentence, with a subject (We) and a verb (are). If the apostrophe is omitted, the sentence would become a fragment, reading:

"Were never going to make it in time!"

This means nothing, because now the sentence begins with the simple past tense of the verb "to be" and has no subject.

Another common error results from confusion between "you're", which means "you are", and "your", which is a possessive pronoun.

A properly constructed sentence would be, "You're going to want to question me." Conversely, it would be improper to write, "Your going to want to question me." This second sentence has no subject, because "your" is an adjective, not a noun.

Note, too, that the reverse is also true. "Your leaders will want to question me," is a completely proper sentence, because "your" is an adjective modifying the subject of the sentence, "leaders". Using the similar-sounding contraction makes a nonsense of the sentence. "You're leaders will want to question me," means nothing, because it introduces a second, unrelated verb ("are") into the sentence.

Story titles with an apostrophe

A few story titles use an apostrophe in their story titles.

• The Daleks' Master Plan. The presence of the apostrophe after the S means the Master Plan is that of several Daleks.
• Warriors' Gate, like the above, this means the Gate (in the story called the Gateway), is possessed by more than one Warrior.
• The King's Demons, the apostrophe in this title functions in the same way as the above stories, but there is only one King, who has several demons.
• Father's Day. Because the holiday is named from the perspective of an individual celebrant, "father" is singular. Most people have only one father. It has also simply become the worldwide naming convention to indicate a singular father by the apostrophe. See Wikipedia:Father's Day for more information.
• The Idiot's Lantern, like The King's Demons this has the same meaning of belonging, the singular "idiot" owns the lantern.
• Journey's End, in which the singular "journey" has reached its conclusion.
• Amy's Choice, in this case the "choice" is that of Amy, a singular proper noun.

Commas

Commas are amongst the trickiest things to get right in English punctuation.

After a form of address

If you're talking to someone, and you say their name or title, you should place a comma after their name.

Correct: Doctor, come here.

Incorrect: Doctor come here.

After a general noun that immediately precedes a more specific example of that noun

This usage of commas is really very important on a wiki like ours, which includes a lot of weird species names. However, it's something that's often ignored or just not well-understood. Consider this sentence:

Barbara was concerned about her student, Susan.

The comma before Susan is actually compulsory. If it's left out, many of us would still be able to make sense of the sentence, because we understand what a student is, and Susan is a very common first name. But leaving off the comma is still, technically, wrong. The reason for this becomes clearer when we start using less familiar words:

Sarah Jane once fought against Qetesh Ruby White.

Sarah Jane once fought against Qetesh, Ruby White.

The comma here makes all the difference. Without the comma, a valid reading of the sentence is that Qetesh is a title, as in President James Buchanan. With a comma, Ruby White is clearly a part of whatever group is described by the noun Qetesh.

Since races are often blue-linked next to individuals of that species, it's very important to include a comma between the race and the individual to tell the reader that the race name is not a title, or that the whole thing, "Qetesh Ruby White", isn't a single, triple-named entity. Remember, you, as an editor on a Doctor Who wiki, might not even blink at the lack of a comma, because you know what a Qetesh is and who Ruby White is. However, the casual reader, or even the Doctor Who fan who simply has never seen SJA, probably won't parse those three words correctly without a comma.

Here are some other correct examples of comma usage of this case:

Martha Jones loved the film, Breakfast at Tiffany's.

The eighth Doctor wasn't a fan of the television series, Babylon 5.

The third Doctor once placated the great beast, Aggedor, with a lullaby.

Ben Jackson was a seaman on the naval vessel, HMS Teazer.

The only on-screen writing credit for Donald Tosh was for the fourth episode of The Massacre, "Bell of Doom".

In a list

Commas separate items in lists, as in the sentence: "The Doctor has a recorder, a frilly shirt, a scarf and a bowtie." Note that a comma before the conjunction, and, is optional, but generally avoided. It's thus correct, but somewhat antiquated, to say, "The Doctor has a recorder, a frilly shirt, a scarf, and a bowtie."

Independent clause separation

Commas are used to separate two clauses in a sentence which are independent of each other. That is, the two clauses could easily form sentences of their own.

Correct: The Doctor browbeat the Dalek, but Martha chose a less confrontational approach.

Incorrect: The Doctor browbeat the Dalek but Martha chose a less confrontational approach.

When you have two complete clauses, both with their own subjects and verbs, you should put a comma at the conjunction. Note what happens when the second clause is turned into a dependent clause:

Correct: The Doctor browbeat the Dalek while humming a merry tune.

Incorrect: The Doctor browbeat the Dalek, while humming a merry tune.

The comma is wrong here, because "humming a merry tune" is a dependent clause that has no subject and only a participle for a verb.

Far more common than "while" are the conjunctions "and", "but", "or" and "yet". A comma should go before any of these if the clause that follows has a subject and a verb.

Correct: Jo would have stayed with the Doctor, but she got married.

Correct: Sarah Jane could either keep to herself, or she could invite Maria into her life.

Correct: The tenth Doctor saved the universe from Rassilon's plan, yet he still died for Wilf.

Correct: Nyssa solved the mathematical equation, and Tegan explored outside the TARDIS for any signs of 20th century Earth.

Incorrect: Jo would have stayed with the Doctor, but got married instead.

Incorrect: Nyssa solved the mathematical euqation, and explored outside the TARDIS for any signs of 20th century Earth.

Using commas where a full stop or conjunction is required

Commas have precise meanings. They can't just be used wherever one wants in a sentence. One of the biggest problems associated with comma use is when a comma is used to continue adding thoughts to a sentence.

Incorrect: Jo claimed to be a qualified agent, she may have exaggerated about this in the same way she exaggerated the extent of her A-Levels.

This is incorrect because there's no conjunction present. Thus, there are at least two ways to improve the punctuation of this thought. Proper punctuation demands one either break up the thought into two sentences or place a conjunction after the comma:

Correct: Jo claimed to be a qualified agent. She may have exaggerated about this in the same way she exaggerated the extent of her A-Levels.

Correct: Jo claimed to be a qualified agent, but she may have exaggerated about this in the same way she exaggerated the extent of her A-Levels.

Additional help with commas

You can find more help in a detailed exploration of comma usage at Talk:Josephine Jones#Excessive commas?

Full stops or periods

Full stops, generally known to North American speakers of English as "periods", usually don't present much of a problem. They're naturally used at the end of sentences to bring closure. However, because of varied use across the English speaking world, the use of periods with abbreviations must be arbitrarily decided her on our wiki.

In keeping with our general preference for British English usage, the following shall be considered "correct" here.

• In the abbreviation of precedent personal titles, no period shall be used if the first and last letters of the full title form the abbreviation. A period shall be used if the usual abbreviation does not include these letters. Hence, it's Mr Smith but Rev. Arnold Golightly.
  • without a period: Mr, Mrs, Ms, St
  • with a period: Rev., Sen., Rep., Prof.
• In the use of acronyms, no period shall be used, owing to the modern British standard which has essentially caved into American usage. Yes, UNIT was once U.N.I.T., but nowadays it's not. Hence NASA, CIA, FBI, etc.

Inverted commas or quotation marks

British standard is to put speech within single quotation marks. such as this short passage from Wetworld:

Martha jumped as a figure appeared out of the gloom. A short, elderly Indian man, peering at her worridly. 'Where's the Doctor?'

However, it would be problematic to follow the British standard on a site powered by MediaWiki software. The single quotation mark has a meaning in wiki code that the double quotation mark does not. In this one case, therefore, we adopt the American standard of using double quotation marks. Hence, we would see this as being the "correct" punctuation of the above passage:

Martha jumped as a figure appeared out of the gloom. A short, elderly Indian man, peering at her worridly. "Where's the Doctor?"

Semi-colons

Replacement for other types of "sentence glue"

Semicolons are largely a matter of personal preference. Many people never use semi-colons in their everyday writing, yet they can be quite correct in their punctuation. A semi-colon is largely an alternative to a conjunction or a full stop, generally used to suggest there's a fairly close, even causal, relationship between two sentences.

Correct: The Doctor didn't care; he was going whether the Brigadier liked it or not.

Correct: The Doctor didn't care. He was going whether the Brigadier liked it or not.

Correct: The Doctor didn't care, because he was going whether the Brigadier liked it or not.

All of these are correct. It's really just a stylistic choice that can help vary one's sentence construction in an article. What's not correct is:

Incorrect: The Doctor didn't care, he was going whether the Brigadier liked it or not.

For clarity in lists

If you're listing long series of things, semi-colons help make the border between listed items clearer. This can be vital if one's list include a lot of clauses set off by commas. Consider the following:

Correct: The Doctor was forced to remember his companions: Leela, the one with the savage tongue; Amy, the girl who didn't want to grow up; Harry, the doctor who was an imbecile; Jamie, the man who had to forget his boyhood; and Barbara, the teacher who should never have come along at all.

Semi-colons help the reader understand where each of these descriptions end.

Spelling and usage

Some commonly misused and misspelled words are;

• there, their and they're.
• we're, were and where
• you're and your

Here's a quick and easy way to remember the different "they're, their and there":

• There - There has the word "here" in it and together with "where" are related to placing a location; "here, there, everywhere".
• They're - They're is a contraction of they are, so if it looks odd with "they're" in a sentence break it apart to be 'they are' and see if it's still looks correct.
• Their - This is about possession, it's their hair, their food, their drinks, their army etc.

We're, Were and Where

• We're is, as discussed above a contraction of "we are".
• Were is used as the past tense of are. It is used frequently on this wiki as all in-universe articles are written in the past tense.
• As noted above Where is related to location; "Where are we? They are there by the TARDIS. Here we have a dead Dalek."

Your and You're

• You're, as discussed above is a contraction of "You are".
• Your means something belongs or is connected to you.

Full usage

To show all these words written in a paragraph here is an example piece of text;

The Doctor's TARDIS materialised on the planet Skaro. "The Dalek's home world." The Doctor said ominously to his companions.

"I don't like it here." Tegan said tucking her hands into the coat.

"You should've worn a more appropriate coat, I did warn you." The Doctor said, seemingly unaffected by the cold.

"You said there was a breeze, it's a nuclear winter!" Tegan said, her teeth chattering.

"Now that we're here, there's nothing I can do Tegan, especially since they're likely already watching." :The Doctor said, looking around with a pair of opera glasses.

"They? The Daleks?" Turlough said, pulling up the hood of his coat against the breeze.

"The Thals. It is their planet too." The Doctor removed what looked like a watch from his pocket.

"Your piloting skills leave much to be desired, Doctor!" Tegan cried as she walked around the back of the Doctor's TARDIS. There was a sheer cliff behind them.

"It's nothing to worry about Tegan." The Doctor paused, unrolling his hat. "As I've frequently told you, the TARDIS' HADS will take care of any…dangerous issues." He trailed off. "Ah, it looks like our arrival has been noticed."

Usage explanation

Explanations are in bold:

The Doctor's TARDIS (this TARDIS is the Doctor's) materialised on the planet Skaro. "The Dalek's home world." (They have arrived on Skaro which is the home planet of the Daleks)' The Doctor said ominously to his companions.

"I don't like it here." ("I do not like it here") Tegan said tucking her hands into the coat.

"You should've worn a more appropriate coat, I did warn you." ("You should have worn…") The Doctor said, seemingly unaffected by the cold.

"You said there was a breeze, it's a nuclear winter!" Tegan said, her teeth chattering. (it is a nuclear winter)

"Now that we're here, there's nothing I can do Tegan, especially since they're likely already watching." (Now that we are here, there is nothing I can do Tegan, especially since they are likely…) The Doctor said, looking around with a pair of opera glasses.

"They? The Daleks?" Turlough said, pulling up the hood of his coat against the breeze.

"The Thals. It is their planet too." (The planet is the Thals') The Doctor removed what looked like a watch from his pocket.

"Your piloting skills leave much to be desired, Doctor!" Tegan cried as she walked around the back of the Doctor's TARDIS. There was a sheer cliff behind them.

"It's nothing to worry about Tegan." The Doctor paused, unrolling his hat. "As I've frequently told you, the TARDIS' HADS will take care of any…dangerous issues." He trailed off. "Ah, it looks like our arrival has been noticed. ("It is nothing to worry about Tegan." …"As I have frequently told you, the TARDIS' HADS will take care of any…dangerous issues" The HADS are the part of the TARDIS)