Grammer Question...

[22s]

Hi all,

Usually quite capable with grammar, but this has got me stumped.

Would love direction on which of the following is correct (or more correct than the others):

A: "At our company, we don't just sell cars, we sell dreams."

B: "At our company, we don't just sell cars - we sell dreams."

C: "At our company, we don't just sell cars: we sell dreams."

D: Other (please state).

Thank you in advance!

EDIT: No it isn't a 'funny' ironic mistake in the thread title - as I clicked 'submit' I saw I wrote "grammer" in the title... Spelling help request thread to follow...

[rich12]

A.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

22s said:

Grammer Question...

[RegMolehusband]

B. A hyphen adds emphasis.

[Yertis]

Any advertisement with copy or script that starts "At [insert brand] we [blah blah blah insert proposition]" immediately turns me against whatever product/service it is they're try to push. It's lazy, boring, and derivative writing. Sadly about 50% of adverts seem to use this structure at the moment.

Have a nice day.

[dukeboy749r]

Yertis said:

Any advertisement with copy or script that starts "At [insert brand] we [blah blah blah insert proposition]" immediately turns me against whatever product/service it is they're try to push. It's lazy, boring, and derivative writing. Sadly about 50% of adverts seem to use this structure at the moment.

Have a nice day.

Very helpful.

Either you use a comma, or a hyphen. The hyphen, as has been pointed out, adds more emphasis.

Or you might get an answer with no alternative offered.

[Speed Badger]

"At our company, we don't just sell cars - we sell dreams."

[MYOB]

An alternative suggestion

"At our company...we sell dreams"

This is presuming it's blatantly obvious elsewhere that cars are sold!

Or "we don't just sell cars, we sell dreams"

Edited by MYOB on Saturday 27th June 18:52

[Derek Smith]

22s said:

Hi all,

Usually quite capable with grammar, but this has got me stumped.

Would love direction on which of the following is correct (or more correct than the others):

A: "At our company, we don't just sell cars, we sell dreams."

B: "At our company, we don't just sell cars - we sell dreams."

C: "At our company, we don't just sell cars: we sell dreams."

D: Other (please state).

Thank you in advance!

EDIT: No it isn't a 'funny' ironic mistake in the thread title - as I clicked 'submit' I saw I wrote "grammer" in the title... Spelling help request thread to follow...

If you are not writing a reference book or submitting a thesis, then you can try for emphasis any way you want. Or should that be any way you want to? Or, as it’s a statement rather than a question, any way you want to might be acceptable.

C: is generally accepted as incorrect. A colon should only prefix something like a list. In this instance, the correct punctuation is a semicolon as it separates two independent statements.

If you are producing copy for a graphic advert, then there is only one rule; if it works, go for it.

[perdu]

"Our company doesn't just sell cars, we sell dreams."

At our company we...

Does not scan nicely for me.

(And incidentally I was always punished severely for 'and' ing after a comma. My English master really was a grammar nasty.)

[bristolbaron]

perdu said:

"Our company doesn't just sell cars, we sell dreams."

At our company we...

Does not scan nicely for me.

(And incidentally I was always punished severely for 'and' ing after a comma. My English master really was a grammar nasty.)

That reads much nicerer.

[coppice]

perdu said:

"Our company doesn't just sell cars, we sell dreams."

At our company we...

Does not scan nicely for me.

(And incidentally I was always punished severely for 'and' ing after a comma. My English master really was a grammar nasty.)

Your English master was a stranger to the Oxford comma then. It is accepted usage , but infrequently used these days .

Re the ad , its principal flaw is that the sentence begins with 'our company ' but then switches to 'we' , instead of 'it'

[MikeGTi]

Surely it would be an em dash that you're after, not a hyphen?

[boyse7en]

perdu said:

"Our company doesn't just sell cars, we sell dreams."

At our company we...

Does not scan nicely for me.

(And incidentally I was always punished severely for 'and' ing after a comma. My English master really was a grammar nasty.)

That's not grammatically correct. A company is an individual entity, not a collection of individuals. So it should be "Our company doesn't just sell cars, it sells dreams".

Going back to the OP, the correct one is A.

But as others have said, for adverts/promotional copy, use whatever works.

[Simpo Two]

If the question is comma vs hyphen etc, then comma.

But as others have pointed out it's a very cheesy bit of copywriting that I'd instantly ignore!

And why tell people you sell them? You'd hardly give cars away...

[Flip Martian]

Dead thread resurrection maybe, sorry. But I read those options and just thought

"<name of company> don't just sell cars, we sell dreams"

would be a bit more snappy and a bit less wordy.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Flip Martian said:

Dead thread resurrection maybe, sorry. But I read those options and just thought

"<name of company> don't just sell cars, we sell dreams"

would be a bit more snappy and a bit less wordy.

A company is a singular, so it's a bit mixed.

[AlexC1981]

"At our company, we don't just sell cars, we sell dreams."

Is the first comma after "company" needed? I would probably have included it if I had been writing it, but I sometimes think I use too many commas.

[Flip Martian]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

Flip Martian said:

Dead thread resurrection maybe, sorry. But I read those options and just thought

"<name of company> don't just sell cars, we sell dreams"

would be a bit more snappy and a bit less wordy.

A company is a singular, so it's a bit mixed.

Excellent, someone more pedantic than me. Ok then "blablabla..... IT sells dreams"