Place any mark there?

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Believer

#356375 Fri, 27 Apr 07 12:39 AM

Hi,

If you have a clause or a sentence in the quotation marks in a sentence, do you have to place a period? More often, I see them not.

eg,

Please don't say "You need to go (a period??)" but say "You have to go."

Believer

Joined on Mon, Jan 2 2006

Contributing Member (1,968)

Clauses, Quotation marks

Feebs11

#356386 Fri, 27 Apr 07 01:25 AM

Believer wrote:
Hi,

If you have a clause or a sentence in the quotation marks in a sentence, do you have to place a period? More often, I see them not.

eg,

Please don't say "You need to go (a period??)" but say "You have to go."

If you are quoting something, the punctuation goes outside the quotation marks.
In your example > "Please don't say 'You need to go' but say 'You have to go'.

Feebs11

Joined on Thu, Nov 23 2006

Senior Member (4,784)

Clauses, Punctuation, Quotation marks, Quoting

Yoong Liat

#356549 Fri, 27 Apr 07 12:11 PM

Hi Believer

I don't understand what you are asking.

Yoong Liat

Joined on Mon, Sep 4 2006

Singapore

Veteran Member (5,836)

Yoong Liat

Believer

#356896 Sat, 28 Apr 07 04:18 AM

Thank you, Feebs11 and Yoong Liat.

Let me clarify what I am trying ot ask: When you have kind of a long sentence that contains a clause or sentence in quotes although a person is not quoting anything perse, do that clause or sentence in quotation marks need to have a period. My understanding that no longer seems valid is that when you have a sentence, no matter where it is placed, you need to place a period.

Please don't use the sentence "You have to go to the meeting (a period here????)" but rather use " You need ot go to the meeting."

Believer

Clauses, Quotation marks, Quoting

Stannum

#356948 Sat, 28 Apr 07 07:19 AM

G'day Believer,

When quoting a sentence you should quote the sentence.

When you quote part sentences the rest of the punctuation is included so for consistency the final punctuation point should be included.

Stannum

Joined on Fri, Oct 28 2005

Melbourne Australia

Regular Member (526)

Punctuation, Quoting

Feebs11

#357010 Sat, 28 Apr 07 12:30 PM

Believer wrote:
Thank you, Feebs11 and Yoong Liat.

Let me clarify what I am trying ot ask: When you have kind of a long sentence that contains a clause or sentence in quotes although a person is not quoting anything perse, do that clause or sentence in quotation marks need to have a period. My understanding that no longer seems valid is that when you have a sentence, no matter where it is placed, you need to place a period.

Please don't use the sentence "You have to go to the meeting (a period here????)" but rather use " You need ot go to the meeting."

Not my understanding. I have always done it the way I indicated, and that is what I was taught. Your example does not require punctuation for the quoted sentences.

Feebs11

Clauses, Punctuation, Quotation marks, Quoting

MrPedantic

#357018 Sat, 28 Apr 07 12:53 PM

I would probably do it like this, in contexts such as yours:

1. Say "You have to go to the meeting", not "You need to go to the meeting".

i.e. without the full stop (or comma, or colon, or semi-colon, as the case may be) in the first quote.

But exclamation and question marks may be included, e.g.

2. Say "You have to go to the meeting!", not "You need to go to the meeting!".

3. Say "You have to go to the meeting?", not "You need to go to the meeting?".

In the case of ordinary dialogue in printed matter, by the way, most publishers prefer to put punctuation marks within the preceding inverted commas, e.g.

4. "Yes, when I am upstairs," he answered; "but I can't walk upstairs now."

MrP

MrPedantic

Joined on Tue, Oct 12 2004

Veteran Member (11,944)

...opella forensis / adducit febris...

Colons, Commas, Punctuation, Question marks

Yoong Liat

#357109 Sat, 28 Apr 07 05:41 PM

Mr P

4. "Yes, when I am upstairs," he answered; "but I can't walk upstairs now."

Why is a semi-colon placed after 'answered' instead of a comma?