Dashes in Verses

Ok, thanks! That's a real big help!

Actually, if there were a way to put the dashes in as not necessary for memorization purposes it would be nice. Sometimes it is hard to remember that there is a dash in a particular place and sometimes you have to type the dash exactly right with spaces around it and sometimes you don't. This is a small thing but I am just mentioning it since you are talking about the dashes :-)

thats not happened to me before but i have been the second person to enter a certain memory verse before. i know who was the first to do it to. lol

ByHisGrace - you should never have to type in the dashes. If that's happening in some of your verses, definitely let us know and we'll get it fixed.

Wait a second, so if you are typing a verse in and you come to where there is a dash, you can just leave a regular space and it will accept it as correct?

Yes, dashes are optional punctuation. Similarly with periods (fullstops), commas, question marks, and semicolons.

There are a few verses (I can't remember which now) which I am memorizing and the dashes don't have spaces around them. I also have trouble with some verses that don't end the double quotation marks correctly. They are marked ' " instead of '". The system then gets confused.

What should I do? Do you know what I mean about what the problem might be with the double quotation marks?

Thank you! I'm using this for the National Bible Bee and it's very helpful!

Soo...why dash???

i think thats cool cuz im not huge on typing up my puncuation! lol

I love the fact that I can totally ignore the punctuation when I type, cuz then I can focus on the words in the verse and their meaning, instead of my accuracy in typing punctuation.

I find that memorizing is easier when I get the rhythm of the verse, and so saying it out loud a few times, reading it over a few times in the same Bible, and reading it on the screen in both boxes (with and without punctuation) help me to actually picture and HEAR the verse and then many times I find even though I think I don't know the verse, when I start typing it just comes to me as I go, because of the rhythm.

I'm sure it would have been the same if I had been using the punctuation from the very beginning, but when I consider in the original Greek there was no punctuation and in the Hebrew not even any spaces (hmmm, maybe not in Greek either? Wasn't it all capitals with no spaces???), I have stopped feeling guilty for not capitalizing and not punctuating! :)

Thanks again, Andy, for making this such a great resource!

Alex - yes, I do know what you mean with the ' " quotation marks because I have a few verses that have the problem. I need to tackle it again and see whether I can fix that bug.

If a verse has a dash without spaces on either side then you should consider that to be an error in the verse and either correct it yourself or flag it to be corrected. (See this page for details on how to do that: http://www.memverse.com/blog/main/Reporting_Errors_in_Verses)

I usually try to punctuate the verses as best I can. Personally, I think it helps the verses to "stick" in my memory better. But it's nearly impossible to punctuate every verse exactly as it appears in Scripture (unless you wanted to double the time it takes to memorize the verse, and intentionally memorize the punctuation). For example, I might type a semicolon when it is supposed to be a colon, or vice-versa. It's at times like that when I am especially thankful that punctuation is ignored in the tests.

Hi Andy,
Thanks for letting me know about the dashes - I'll make a note as verses pop up with that issue and let you know which ones they are. Thanks so much for all you have done and continue to do to keep this website up and running.

@Andy - Thank you for all the work you've done. If I notice a verse with the dashes wrong, I will try to edit if possible, else I will flag it for review.

Thanks again!!! :)