Search results for 'tag:British English tag:Colons' matching tags 'British English' and 'Colons'

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: 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: colon

Grammar Geek — Wed, 02 May 2007 15:30:23 GMT

In British English, we generally use lower case after a colon, but American speakers often use upper case.

Yes, if what follows the colon is a complete sentence, as it is in this case. It's not WRONG to leave it lower case, because it is, as so many things are, a matter of style. I would think it was wrong to capitalize it if it were not a complete sentence

A question mark is needed after 'film'.

I completely agree.

Re: colon

Yoong Liat — Wed, 02 May 2007 15:15:24 GMT

Maya2 wrote:

It raises the question: what is a quality film.

It raises the question: What is a quality film.

It raises the question: (W)hat is a quality film.

It raises the question: what is a quality film?
It raises the question: What is a quality film?

In British English, we generally use lower case after a colon, but American speakers often use upper case. A question mark is needed after 'film'.

Re: Please correct my mistakes in business letter!

nona the brit — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 06:20:31 GMT

Dear Mr. Ericson! Do not end a salutation with an exclamation mark. In US English use a colon :, in British English use either a comma or nothing.

As you are already aware, Football Club âShahterâ(Donetsk) is about to build a new 5-star stadium, which meets all official UEFA requirements and will have no euqual anyway in the Ukraine. The new tender process has been completed and we are glad to invite you to provide the services of General contractor.

Your second paragraph is not clear. Is the company you are writing to making the presentation? How can you invite them to something they are doing themselves? Are you inviting the contractor along to a presentation being organised by the football club? Do you want the contractor to give a presentation at this meeting? At the moment you are mixing up all these ideas and it doesn't make sense.

FC Â«ShahterÂ» takes upon itself all the travel expenses including transfer, meals, and accommodation.

Thank you in advance.
Looking forward to your reply.

Re: British versus american expressions

khoff — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 17:34:38 GMT

I learned the American rules for punctuation: periods and commas always go inside the quotation marks; colons and semi-colons always go outside; and question marks and exclamation points go where they actually make sense. I agree it's not logical, and sometimes I want to rebel and put that period outside the quotation marks, but years of training usually prevail. Can we accept it as an illogical but perhaps endearing quirk - kind of like switching the fork from right hand to left hand?
I do agree with Eric about a sub-current of anti-American-English on this forum- (I would not go so far as to call it anti-Americanism) - before I started reading this board, I had no idea that some people felt so strongly that Americans were ruining the English language, or somehow usurping the rights to it. I don't think American English is inherently less logical - there are exceptions like the punctuation question described above, but certainly British English -- or "standard English" -- or English as spoken in the UK -- or "the only REAL English," as some people seem to think of it -- also has its inconsistencies. Languages evolve, and there are a lot of us speaking English the American way. We mean no harm by it, honestly. We are not trying to destroy your traditions or corrupt your children. We are simply speaking our native language, which we have always thought of as "English."

Re: Articles

Tiggs — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 17:45:20 GMT

Re:'Call a porter, itâs too much luggage for you to carry.'

I would consider this a comma splice error (acording to North American usage), and replace the comma with a semi-colon; however, I have seen this 'error' on the BBC website several times, and I am wondering if that is correct usage in British English.

Can anyone help?

Thanks

Re: Punctuation and the Colon

anon1 — Mon, 27 Dec 2004 17:46:54 GMT

All,

taiwandave, I stand corrected. You are right, for I am sure I do use "it's" to represent "it has".

MM thank you for confirming that a complete phrase is required to the left of the colon. I wonder if there is some British English versus American English at play? Because this quote is taken from a book on punctuation, I would tend to think that editing process would be impecabble. Having written that, I do note that there are a lot of poor ratings on Amazon.com.

The quote is from page 43 of "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" by Lynne Truss. It is the best-seller's list, which is quite amazing for a punctuation or grammar book.

MountainHiker

Dear Personnel Director:/, in business letter

ahava_yin — Sun, 03 Oct 2004 07:21:15 GMT

Hi,

For a letter, in the greeting part, "Dear **" usually ends with a comma, if I'm remebering it right. I found one article on the website says that if you really want to make it formal you need to put a colon instead of a comma. Is that so? Or to put a comma or a colon concerns with the different ways between American and British English. Thank you for your attention.

Re: Using Colon inside Quotes?

rommie — Wed, 07 Apr 2004 07:55:33 GMT

Well, both or neither, really, because "rules" governing punctuation aren't really "rules" in the sense that rules govening nouns, verbs and adjectives are rules. Punctuation "rules" vary considerably, often from publisher to publisher, or from newspaper to newspaper.

I can tell you that QUESTION MARKS and EXCLAMATION MARKS should go within quotes if they refer to the quoted material only; outside otherwise.

I can also tell you that COMMAS and PERIODS are usually place inside the quotes, but there are some exceptions in British English, and sometimes also when using monospaced fonts.

But I can't tell you a rule for COLONS, as I simply am not aware of one. Personally I'd place it outside the quotes - but that's just me.

The good news, though, is that whatever you choose to do, no-one can ever really tell you that you're wrong. The most important rule of all here is CONSISTENCY. Whatever you decide to do, stick with it throughout the whole document. If you chop and change, that will make it appear as though you don't know what you're doing.

Rommie