Search results for 'tag:American English tag:Punctuation' matching tags 'American English' and 'Punctuation'

Re: Punctuation within quotes?

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:06:53 GMT

These punctuation marks (the British call them inverted commas) come in two forms, double and single. The double quotation marks (opening â and closing â) are used to enclose the words of a direct quotation: She said, âIâll never see you again.â (They are never used in indirect quotation: She said sheâd never see him again.) They are also used to enclose words or phrases quoted from others or words that may be slang or that are in some other way being used peculiarly: The speaker tried to put a favorable âspinâ on his denial. The âpacification planâ was in fact simply a euphemism for a bloody conquest. But be sparing: most editors discourage the use of such quotation marks for effect rather than for a substantive reason, and overuse of these marks in any writing is affected.	1
Convention also calls for double quotation marks around the titles of short stories, short poems, short musical compositions, and the names of plays, chapters in books, and radio and television programs: Frostâs âThe Road Not Taken,â âEye Witness News.â (Titles of longer works usually require italics instead, and sometimes the decision is arbitrary or simply conventional: books of the Bible, for example, are almost always italicized rather than placed in quotation marks, and the same is true of the titles of Shakespeareâs plays.)	2
A key problem with quotation marks is which other marks of punctuation go inside the closing quotation mark(s) and which belong outside. In the United States, most stylebooks and most editors follow these rules: periods and commas belong inside, colons and semicolons outside. Other marksâquestion mark, dash, and exclamation point, for exampleâgo inside when they belong with the quoted material, outside when they belong to the main sentence. British editorial conventions differ.	3
When quoting a long passage of two or more paragraphs, the usual procedure in written American English is to use no quotation marks and instead to set off the entire passage of quoted matter by indenting it. If you decide to use quotation marks instead, however, the usual procedure is to begin each paragraph of the long quotation with quotation marks but to use a closing quotation mark only at the end of the final sentence in the quoted passage. In any event, use only one of these methods with any given quotation. See also POETRY.	4
British publishers frequently use single quotation marks (opening â and closing â) where Americans use double quotation marks. In American writing, however, single quotation marks are restricted mainly to enclosing a quotation within a quotation: The dealer said, âIâm sorry, I thought you said âI pass.ââ Note that a period goes inside both final quotation marks when the two quotations end together.

Re: Kind Regards or Kind regards or kind regards...?

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 23:14:30 GMT

Written Formula for Ending a Letter (British English)

Informal, personal (to close friends and family):

With love
Best wishes

Semi-formal / informal (emails, notes, business memos):

Kind regards
Best regards
Regards

Formal letters:

Yours sincerely
- Use when you know the addressee by name (Dear John / Dear Mr Smith). You can only be sincere with someone you know.
Yours faithfully
- Use when you don't know the persons name (Dear Sir or Madam).

Case / Capitalisation

Sentence case applies. Only capitalise the first letter of a sentence (with the exception of proper nouns and special conventions).

Punctuation

Open punctuation and mixed punctuation are common in the UK. If you begin the letter with "Dear Jane," (or "Dear Jane:" in American English), then the closing should be punctuated with a comma (e.g. "Kind regards, John"). These commas (or colon and comma in American English) would be omitted when writing a letter in open punctuation (as the line breaks make such punctuation redundant).

Re: The question mark/comma/quotation mark debacle

RayH — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:30:19 GMT

Please note that American English likes to place the final punctuation mark inside a title or quotation, even though it doesn't form part of it.
The British regard this practice as illogical.
AmE: He's always wanted to read "Moby Dick," "Oliver Twist" and "The Great Gatsby."

BrE: He's always wanted to read "Moby Dick", "Oliver Twist" and "The Great Gatsby".

Here is the link to the site this came from if you want to check it yourself. The relevant section is near the bottom of the screen under the heading "quotation marks".

HTH

http://www.davidappleyard.com/english/punctuation.htm

Re: Is bicycle park correct ?

Grammar Geek — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:51:18 GMT

Hi Monalisatuan,

Mostly it's good. I think you need to capitalize "Western" and remember that there is no space BEFORE the punctuation mark. I believe "car park" is British English, while "parking lot" is American English. I changed the part about "called" because it's NOT really called that. You're trying to describe what it is, but it doesn't really have a name.

In my country, motorcycles and bicycles are a popular means of transportation, this is good so there are many bicycle and motorbicycle parks this is good, but you may want to say "parking lots" to keep (or store) your bikes and motorbikes, just as in Western countries cars are a popular means of transportation and there are many car parks there. When you take your bike or motobike into the bicycle or motorcycle parks , the motorbike/bike keeper use "parking lot attendant" not "keeper" will give you a small piece of paper that is your ~~called~~ motorbike/bike keeping ticket. I don't have a good word for this. You can say "receipt" perhaps. With a car park, you have your keys, and can't drive away with someone else's car. You must keep this ticket carefully because when you return to take out your bike or motorbike , you must ~~give back this~~ ~~motorbike/bike keeping ticket to the motorbike/bike keeper.~~ show your receipt to the lot attendant. Of course, the ~~motorbike/bike keeper~~ attendant will charge you 5 cents perhaps instead say "a small fee" - 5 cents is an absurdly small amount in US dollars for keeping your motorbike/bike .The money you pay them is called parking fee. You can combine these last two. Of coure, the attendant will charge you a small amount of money as a parking fee.

Re: Punctuation inside the quotation marks

Anonymous — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 05:51:16 GMT

Commas and periods go inside the quotation marks only in American English. I'm American, so they look great that way; but I'm not sure it would be helpful to teach this in Europe. I normally just tell my students how the British do it.

Re: Comma after i.e. and/or eg.?

milky — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 00:15:39 GMT

JaCKo__007 wrote:

A coma question!

I've found that American based writers use commas after 'i.e.', but what of it in British English and does it then apply to eg. as well?

Does a comma go after i.e. or e.g.?

Both abbreviations i.e. and e.g. are preceded by a mark of punctuation, usually a comma. In American English, both are generally followed by a comma, though not in British English, and are not italicized. E.g. may also be followed by a colon, depending on the construction. In British English, the term is often written as eg with the periods omitted.

Re: Punctuation within quotes?

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 21:37:56 GMT

For american English, a period ending a sentence should always go inside the quotation marks. A question mark ending a sentence goes inside the quotation marks if you are quoting a question, outside if you are asking a question, inside if both. You should never have punctuation both inside and outside the quotation marks.

She said, "Go to the store."
Did she say "Go to the store"?
She said, "Should I go to the store?"
Did she say "Should I go to the store?"

Re: Punctuation within quotes?

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 21:14:03 GMT

In British English the punctuation goes within the quotation marks when the quotation is a complete sentence, but when the quotation is only an excerpt of the whole quotation the punctuation goes outside the quotation marks.
In American English it is different.

Re: USA or UK

Charlotte_T — Mon, 28 May 2007 14:14:19 GMT

Thethenothere123 wrote:
Grammar Geek wrote:
I haven't read through all the pages on this topic, but has anyone commented on how NON-homogeneous UK and US English is? It's not like there's one "British English" or one "American English" unless you're been to broadcasting school. Someone from Yorkshire and someone from Cornwall have about as much in common as either does to someone from Alabama or Maine.

That's a good point. I honestly can't remember whether or not anyone has made it. However, I did try to make the point that for the vast majority of the people that speak English, the only real difference is the accent and certain prefernces in word usage (which are almost always understood perfectly well by everyone). In addition to that, there are some extremely minor differences in grammar/punctuation conventions between AmE and BrE, and that's it.

I agree there're always differences between British English spoken by two people from different places, eg. London and Oxford. But why can we differentiate between BrE and AmE? That's because, generally, there're still a lot of similarities between accents of Yorkshire and Cornwall, although we can't deny there're actually not the same. I think we're all talking about this issue generally, don't we? We sort out the accents into 2 main groups: AmE and BrE. Then under BrE group there're a lot of 'sub-groups'. It's hard to discuss and study in details about accents of Yorkshire and Cornwall because even people living in the same place could have slightly different accents.

P/S I mean no harm and I'm just trying to tell my opinions.

Re: (comma) that/which [American English]

Yoong Liat — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 05:24:49 GMT

Yoong Liat wrote:
the longest river in China, that flows eastward from Tibet to the China Sea. It is also called the Yangtze.

Is it correct to have a comma after 'China' when 'that' is used? IMO, if 'which' is used, then a comma is required.

IMO, when 'that' is used, the comma after 'China' is not required. So it seems Teo's sentence contains a punctuation error.