Learn English – Proper punctuation for “and what’s more”
phrases
I have seen this phrasing as
And what's more –
And what's more,
And what's more!
Which one is most proper?
Best Answer
Normally, you have something to follow:
And, what's more, he also did that!
With the following text, it is clear that an exclamation mark after the phrase is inappropriate. The dash is not appropriate either - it is used to mark a break of some sort, but the text that follows "what is more" or its contraction "what's more" is a continuation of the previous thinking, not a contrasting thought.
A comma is fine; what's more, it is the punctuation I'd use automatically.
Whether the comma is necessary, or allowable, after the "and" is perhaps a little debatable. As you can see, I'd use it; and, what's more, it feels right because there is a small parenthetical break around the "what's more" part of the phrase.
You would use this when someone won something, but it's quite colloquial. The "chicken dinner" part is just a nonsense rhyme, in the same class as "easy-peasy" (including its citrus and racist variations).
In both the COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English) and the BNC (British National Corpus), for God’s sake is by far the most frequent. It is followed in the COCA by for Christ’s sake and by for Heaven’s sake in the BNC, where for Christ’s sake ranks third. For Pete’s sake comes in at number four in both, and occurrences of for Jesus’s sake are negligible.
Best Answer
Normally, you have something to follow:
With the following text, it is clear that an exclamation mark after the phrase is inappropriate. The dash is not appropriate either - it is used to mark a break of some sort, but the text that follows "what is more" or its contraction "what's more" is a continuation of the previous thinking, not a contrasting thought.
A comma is fine; what's more, it is the punctuation I'd use automatically.
Whether the comma is necessary, or allowable, after the "and" is perhaps a little debatable. As you can see, I'd use it; and, what's more, it feels right because there is a small parenthetical break around the "what's more" part of the phrase.