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Victo Posted 13 years ago
Grammar
Another Question for Aspara Gus
The songs "Help!", "Do You Want to Know a Secret?", and "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?" are among my favorites. (Not really.)
The questions "How did he do it?", "Why did he do it?", and "Will he be charged?" are on everybody's mind.
(Here the commas need to go outside to separate the listed questions. In AmE, I believe that commas would be omitted between the questions, which, to me, looks wrong.)
And non-dialogue quotes should retain the full stops outside the ending quote mark(s) per logical BrE punctuation:
The sign said, "Violators will be towed at their own expense". (Outside)
I like his sentence "Be true to yourself and may God bless". (Outside)
I hate the adage "Familiarity breeds contempt".
(Outside)
The policy states verbatim, "Unlawful substances detected in an associate's blood stream will invariably result in termination of employment". (Outside)
But, the full stop goes inside with an email because it is, in essence, a form of oral communication committed to paper.
His email said, "Please ensure to attend the meeting on 1 February 2010. ... Thank you for your continued support." (Inside)
Which ones do you disagree with (in terms of logical punctuation, not American)?
Thank you
The questions "How did he do it?", "Why did he do it?", and "Will he be charged?" are on everybody's mind.
(Here the commas need to go outside to separate the listed questions. In AmE, I believe that commas would be omitted between the questions, which, to me, looks wrong.)
And non-dialogue quotes should retain the full stops outside the ending quote mark(s) per logical BrE punctuation:
The sign said, "Violators will be towed at their own expense". (Outside)
I like his sentence "Be true to yourself and may God bless". (Outside)
I hate the adage "Familiarity breeds contempt".
(Outside)
The policy states verbatim, "Unlawful substances detected in an associate's blood stream will invariably result in termination of employment". (Outside)
But, the full stop goes inside with an email because it is, in essence, a form of oral communication committed to paper.
His email said, "Please ensure to attend the meeting on 1 February 2010. ... Thank you for your continued support." (Inside)
Which ones do you disagree with (in terms of logical punctuation, not American)?
Thank you
Top answer
" are among my favorites. " are on everybody's mind. (Here the commas need to go outside to separate the listed questions.
- " are among my favorites.
- " are on everybody's mind.
- (Here the commas need to go outside to separate the listed questions.
- ) I agree.
- victo The sign said, "Violators will be towed at their own expense".
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9 Answers
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victoThe songs "Help!", "Do You Want to Know a Secret?", and "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?" are among my favorites. (Not really.)
The questions "How did he do it?", "Why did he do it?", and "Will he be charged?" are on everybody's mind.
(Here the commas need to go outside to separate the listed questions. In AmE, I believe that commas would be omitted between the
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I bet you'd do this, though, in the absence of italics:
That looked like an "8", not a "3".
(Comma and period go outside.)
The dealership has since apologised, saying the advert had been totally inappropriate and that it deeply regretted the "hurt it had caused to the family of the victims and society". (Outside)
Microsoft said the omission had been the result of a "
That looked like an "8", not a "3".
(Comma and period go outside.)
The dealership has since apologised, saying the advert had been totally inappropriate and that it deeply regretted the "hurt it had caused to the family of the victims and society". (Outside)
Microsoft said the omission had been the result of a "
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victoThat looked like an "8", not a "3". (Comma and period go outside.)Yes.
victoThe dealership has since apologised, saying the advert had been totally inappropriate and that he deeply regretted the "hurt it had caused to the family of the victims and society". (Outside)Yes.
victoMicrosoft s
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victo"I hope this will make companies think twice before [they ever think / ever thinking] of breaching their international obligations", said the commissioner. (Comma outside)I copied and pasted that sentence from a BBC news excerpt. The editors were besotted, no doubt. (LOL)
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But most posted signs do not include terminal punctuation (ie, a full stop). Logic would dictate, then, at least in this case, that the full stop goes outside. Obviously, if the sign contained any form of sentence-ending punctuation, it would go inside. Do you agree with the examples below?
The sign said, 'Keep Off the Grass'.
(The sign did not have ending punctuation.)
The s
The sign said, 'Keep Off the Grass'.
(The sign did not have ending punctuation.)
The s
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99.9% of the people reading your reported signs would not think of the logic you were using. There would be people who automatically put the full stop inside the quotation mark and people (like me) who put it outside. If you put your two reported signs in the same passage, those who noticed would think you were being inconsistent.
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victo(The sign did not have ending punctuation.)I don’t really take such things into account when punctuating. I would put the period inside to be consistent with my style, which is probably not very common. I think most writers in all cases either put the period inside or outside quotation marks.
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