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Applez Posted 17 years ago
Grammar
Punctuating Speech
Hi everyone,
I'm a little confused about how to punctuate speech (i.e., where to put the full stop, comma, and quotation marks)
Here's what I understand:
For direct speech: She said, "Hello." / "Hello," she said.
For indirect speech: She said hello. (--> is that right?)
The question is, what if the person didn't actually say it? E.g.,
(a) She wanted to say hello.
(b) She wanted to say 'hello'.
(c) She wanted to say, "Hello."
Are any of these correct?
I understand that you can use quotation marks/inverted commas for words/phrases when they're being used in a special sense like titles or when you're talking about a particular word eg, What does 'punctuation' mean?, etc. This is what I've tried to do in (b).
Also, what if that person is me? ie, I wanted to say hello. Does that change anything?
I'm a little confused about how to punctuate speech (i.e., where to put the full stop, comma, and quotation marks)
Here's what I understand:
For direct speech: She said, "Hello." / "Hello," she said.
For indirect speech: She said hello. (--> is that right?)
The question is, what if the person didn't actually say it? E.g.,
(a) She wanted to say hello.
(b) She wanted to say 'hello'.
(c) She wanted to say, "Hello."
Are any of these correct?
I understand that you can use quotation marks/inverted commas for words/phrases when they're being used in a special sense like titles or when you're talking about a particular word eg, What does 'punctuation' mean?, etc. This is what I've tried to do in (b).
Also, what if that person is me? ie, I wanted to say hello. Does that change anything?
Top answer
I think the confusion here stems from the fact that 'to say hello/goodbye' can be considered a fixed phrase-- so that it does not really involve a quotation at all.
- I think the confusion here stems from the fact that 'to say hello/goodbye' can be considered a fixed phrase-- so that it does not really involve a quotation at all.
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2 Answers
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I think the confusion here stems from the fact that 'to say hello/goodbye' can be considered a fixed phrase-- so that it does not really involve a quotation at all.
.
I think the confusion here stems from the fact that 'to say hello/goodbye' can be considered a fixed phrase-- so that it does not really involve a quotation at all.
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