I've noticed that a lot of Cambodians and other learners of English often put spaces before most/all commas and periods. I'm not just talking about beginners, I'm including people who are semi-literate in English and can get their point across in sentences but they still put spaces before every comma. Is there a particular reason why they do that? It's never correct in English to have a space before the punctuation mark, and it's the sort of thing that I, not a teacher, would think could be easily taught to a student on about day 3 of their studies.
Teacher: "Do you see all these spaces before your commas and periods?"
Student" "Yes"
Teacher: "Don't ever do that it's always wrong in English."
Student: "OK"
I've tried googling and it says something about their being spaces before some punctuation in French, is that why some learners mistakenly do it in English? Are there punctuation marks in Khmer and are they following some Khmer rule about spacing?
Why do Cambodians put spaces before commas?
- Khmerhamster
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There isn't really any punctuation commonly used in Khmer language.
From http://m.phnompenhpost.com/national/language-crisis3. Written structure: This makes for difficulty in communicating, even without the added technical issue of typing and layout. Written Khmer has words running into one another; the spacing of words and phrases is at the discretion of the writer or typist, and there are few standard guidelines.
It has no proper nouns, and very limited punctuation – effectively only the period (khan), the question mark (often used with the khan), the double quotation mark, which vacillates between French and English versions, and the colon (again, vacillating between French and English versions and sometimes creating confusion, as the English colon is exactly like a Khmer vowel).
If used at all, the comma is inserted with great reluctance because its function is not widely understood.
Last edited by Khmerhamster on Sat Jan 14, 2017 12:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I've seen native English speakers do it. I don't know why.
My wife did it until I corrected her. She said her English teacher (Khmer) told her to do it.
I said he's wrong.
Worse is, when they, put, too many,,,,,,,in.
My wife did it until I corrected her. She said her English teacher (Khmer) told her to do it.
I said he's wrong.
Worse is, when they, put, too many,,,,,,,in.
pew, pew, pew, pew!
Never noticed it, but full stops ។, one of the very few punctuation marks in Khmer, usually has a space before.
I see lots of native English speakers type exclamation and question marks with a space before, which is irritating.
What I am glad of is increasing use of spaces between Khmer words in digital publishing. Helps readability for dunces like me and ensures lines break nicely.
I see lots of native English speakers type exclamation and question marks with a space before, which is irritating.
What I am glad of is increasing use of spaces between Khmer words in digital publishing. Helps readability for dunces like me and ensures lines break nicely.
Exactly this ^ I would say. They have been studying English for 10 years with teachers that don't know what they are teaching.YaTingPom wrote:I've seen native English speakers do it. I don't know why.
My wife did it until I corrected her. She said her English teacher (Khmer) told her to do it.
I said he's wrong.
Worse is, when they, put, too many,,,,,,,in.
Last edited by Abou-Gor on Sat Jan 14, 2017 4:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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