Search results for 'tag:Question marks tag:Apostrophes' matching tags 'Question marks' and 'Apostrophes'

Re: dash vs. three dots

Grammar Geek — Thu, 08 May 2008 01:47:21 GMT

An ellipsis is properly used only to indicate that text has been omitted.

There are people writing these days who seem to know no other form of punctuation besides the ellipses, and, although they don't seem committed to always using exatly three dots, do seem dedicate to using in place of all other marks except the apostrophe and the question mark.

If you are writing dialogue, you can use it to indicate a trailing away of the voice, as though the speaker started to say something, but then changed his mind.

So your first sentence uses the ... incorrectly.

Your second sentence makes what I consider an appropriate use of the dash.

Your third sentence should simply not use the elllipsis there at all. Put a period.

Your fourth sentence should use a period where you have a dash.

Many people consider the dash to be rather an informal punctuation mark as well. I actually use them regularly in my business writing -- but regularly is not the same as excessively.

Re: 1)How can we call the package that helicopters throw on the land when t

Belly — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 08:57:20 GMT

Mister Micawber wrote:

1) What can we call the package that helicopters throw on the land when there is a catastrophe happens? -- (Emergency) Aid packages? Air drops?

2) About punctuation, should we punctuate before or after the : She told me," I want to go out. " or She told me," I want to go out".) -- Most American punctuation guides place the full stop (or period) invariably inside the quotation mark, while British guides place it inside or out depending on the part to which it is applicable. I think. Or is it the other way around? Anyway, there is contention, sometimes heated

" = quotation mark

, = comma

' = apostrophe

/ = slash or backslash

) = parenthesis (AmE) or bracket (BrE)

# = number sign, pound sign, octothorpe

? = question mark, interrogation point

! = exclamation mark/point

There are probably other names as well.

Do I need two )) here or just one? -- Two, but it would be better to rearrange the sentence to avoid the duplication; it is unattractive.

Hi,

Actually, in sentence one, the thing I want to ask is:

If you can imagine, when inundations come to one province, people of other provinces donates food, drink, money etc (I'm still confused when can we use plural or singular for food and drink here).... and they pack them all in packages which is then sent to the poor province... What can we call that?

Re: 1)How can we call the package that helicopters throw on the land when t

Mister Micawber — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 05:32:38 GMT

1) What can we call the package that helicopters throw on the land when there is a catastrophe happens? -- (Emergency) Aid packages? Air drops?

2) About punctuation, should we punctuate before or after the : She told me," I want to go out. " or She told me," I want to go out".) -- Most American punctuation guides place the full stop (or period) invariably inside the quotation mark, while British guides place it inside or out depending on the part to which it is applicable. I think. Or is it the other way around? Anyway, there is contention, sometimes heated

" = quotation mark

, = comma

' = apostrophe

/ = slash or backslash

) = parenthesis (AmE) or bracket (BrE)

# = number sign, pound sign, octothorpe

? = question mark, interrogation point

! = exclamation mark/point

There are probably other names as well.

Do I need two )) here or just one? -- Two, but it would be better to rearrange the sentence to avoid the duplication; it is unattractive.

Re: look forward to (be/being) ?

Avangi — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 00:44:08 GMT

Njjames wrote:
Hi all, its me again, I decided to sign up a screen name

Thank you guys very much for your helpful information.
Avangi, Thanks very much for correcting me. I corrected my signature in my profile, but I have a question regarding "help me to improve", is it also right to say "help me improve my English" ? I hear people at TV say it like this, but I'm not sure if they really are not saying "to" or if its just me who is not hearing the word "to"? Also, did I phrase my previous question correctly as native English (American or British) speakers would do ?

Thanks again for your helpful posts.
Regards,

Hi Njj,

I was kicking myself for sticking the "to" in there (to improve.) We used to say, "the 'to' is understood." When I look at something I've written a day before, I find [that] it reads much better if I take out all the junk (such as the "that" I just put in brackets.)

Re the "previous question," it sounds great to my ear, but I don't believe it's a question. Nix the question mark. "Its" wants an apostrophe. (The contraction takes one; the posessive pronoun doesn't .)

Regards, - A.

Edit. We say, "people on TV."

Re: Questions - direct and indirect. I need help ...

Cool Breeze — Fri, 04 May 2007 16:04:56 GMT

Nah wrote:
Please tell if these questions are correct, if not then please correct them.
1. I'd like to know if it can support DVDs.
2.I'd like to know what it can support.
3. Can it support DVDs?
4. Does it supports DVDs?

And do i have to put the "?" into end of indirect questions?
Thank you, i appreciate your answers!

Welcome to the forums, Nah. DVD's with the apostrophe is a little old-fashioned and controversial. Since DVD is short for 'digital versatile disc', it should be capitalized.

You need a question mark only if the main clause is a direct question:
I'd like to know what we must do.
Does anyone know what we must do?

Cheers
CB

Mechanics: Apostrophe and quotation mark usage

Ghost Writer — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 02:12:13 GMT

I've been to many websites, but there are still things that confuse me.

I suppose "back in the day" when the Internet could not italicize things, people used some type of punctuation for marking significant words.

The word 'and' can be used intermittently throughout the paper, but the paper may look mediocre.

The word in the other sentence was 'and', and I'm wondering if using the apostrophes correctly. Did I use the apostrophes correctly?

The next situation is a term of my own in a sentence:

Do I like buying clothes from Walmart? Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. This "sometimes-clause" is based on what I consider the ideal me and the other me.

I don't suppose I would use the apostrophes; I figure I would use quotation marks. But how can I be sure?

At other times I will write with a word at the end of the sentence. Sometimes I will use question marks within a sentence and question if I should use a comma within the quotation marks.

I'm going to the store to buy that thing you wanted. You said it was "supervantabulous", but someone else said it was the dorkiest thing ever.

Would I have used the comma within the quotation marks? I suppose I would because this example uses said, but what if it didn't use 'said' and was within a different context?

This would be called my "somtimes-clause", and I haven't found a way to deal with it.

Re: Get out Clause

Inchoateknowledge — Tue, 23 May 2006 11:46:32 GMT

http://www.home.no/vavika/25.gif

I have one more question: after the last apostrophe in my sentence in the previous letter, is it correct to put a period, or should I put a question mark instead.
'By which the work should be completed' . OR ?
'by which,' or 'By which' if you start a sentence with a quotation and 'by' is not what the sentence begins with?

Inchoate

The Punctuation FAQ

rommie — Tue, 17 Feb 2004 20:56:49 GMT

The (incomplete) Punctuation FAQ

Hopefully this will grow in time, as other questions are asked and answered, and other people add to this.
Hopefully (!) some kind moderator or adminstrator will mark this thread as sticky.

INTRODUCTION
In grammar, the rules are forged in a delicate balance between history and culture. History defines the formal rules, culture defines the usage rules, and most of the English-speaking world resides somewhere between the two. You can make a new usage rule merely by inventing it and using it, but the only way to make a new formal rule is wait for a very long time - these rules do change, but they change slowly.

Punctuation rules, on the other hand, change much, much faster. These rules are set by publishers, newspapers, and so on, and so can vary from publisher to publisher, let alone from country to country. For example, the Sunday Times prints "the home secretary", wheras the Times prints "the Home Secretary". Who is right? Well, there are the people who effectively set the rules, so perhaps the question is moot.

I am personally inclined to the view that punctuation doesn't matter much, largely because of the reasons stated above, but also because punctuation is an artifact of writing. Our language had beauty, structure, and the logic of real grammar, long before anyone ever dreamed of writing it down. However, punctuation rules do exist in practice, and people keep asking for them (so these really ARE frequently asked questions), so, here goes with what I've been able to look up.

The sources for this information are the Oxford Language Reference (British) and the Harbrace College Handbook, Ninth Edition (American). Both are accepted reference standards.

Rommie

TRUE GRAY AREAS

These can't really be called "rules", because disagreement exists among the rulemakers. These are the areas in which you must make up your own mind.

CAPITALIZATION
The fixed rules are that sentences and proper nouns are must be capitalized. Beyond that, you pretty much have to decide for yourself. Some people think that words derived from proper nouns should be captialized (like "Boolean" or "Pasteurized" / "boolean" or "pasteurized"), others disagree, arguing that there is no such thing as a "proper adjective". Some people think that abbreviations which are pronouncable should be treated as ordinary vocabulary words and therefore lowercased, others disagree ("ufo", "Nato", etc. versus "UFO", "NATO", etc.). The capitalization of book and film titles is a total free-for-all. You can capitalize pretty much any word you want.

RULES COMMON TO BOTH BRITAIN AND AMERICA

APOSTROPHE-S
In general, plurals are formed with an -s (no apostrophe), and possessive case is formed with an -'s (apostrophe-s). However, there are exceptions to this rule, as follows:
1. The pronoun "its" (possessive case of it) requires no apostrophe. The entirely separate word "it's" is short for "it is".
2. It is CORRECT to write: "My name contains two m's" (with an apostrophe) - basically because, without it, the sentence wouldn't read correctly.

BRACKETS
Round brackets () enclose a relatively unimportant piece of information.
Square brackets [] enclose an explanation by someone other than the author/speaker of the surrounding text.
Punctuation marks that refer only to the parenthetical material go inside the parentheses.
Punctuation marks that refer to non-parenthetical material go outside.

HOW TO SEPARATE CLAUSES
A comma is used to separate the main clauses of a compound sentence, and to separate words and phrases which do not belong together. A comma is not "powerful" enough to completely separate clauses on its own, however - you need a conjunction as well.
A semicolon unites clauses which are of similar importance and closely related.
A colon separates clauses when there is a step forward, for instance from introduction to main point. It is also used to introduce a list. Sentences, and even paragraphs, may end in colon.

QUOTES
If a quotation contains the end of a sentence (and would normally require a period), but is not itself the end of a sentence, use a comma instead of a full stop.

Question marks and exclamation marks go within quotes if they refer to the quoted material only; place them outside when they apply to the whole sentence.

You are supposed to use a comma before quotes, like this:
He said, 'hello.'
In practice, this is often dropped if the quoted material is not at least one whole clause.

RULES UNIQUE TO BRITAIN

QUOTED MATERIAL
Quoted material is enclosed in single quote marks: 'like this'
Alternate quote marks when nesting, as in: he said 'she said "they said 'I said "hello"'"'.

In Britain, the following is correct. Observe the placement of the first comma. This would be incorrect in America;
'That', he said, 'is nonsense.'
The comma goes outside the closing quote - IF the contatenated quote wouldn't contain it. (In other words, he said 'That is nonsense', not 'That, is nonsense'.)

In Britain, actual quotations (extracts from literary works, etc.,) should be quoted exactly, including punctionation, so, if there was no comma in the original, there should also be no comma in the copy. If the sentence demands one, it must go outside the quotes.

RULES UNIQUE TO AMERICA

QUOTED MATERIAL
Quoted material is enclosed in double quote marks: "like this"
Alternate quote marks when nesting, as in: he said "she said 'they said "I said 'hello'"'".

Periods and commas go inside the quotation marks. Colons and semicolons go outside the quotation marks.

Re: Medical punctuation and abbreviations

Melodie — Sat, 29 Nov 2003 19:34:28 GMT

Hello, everyone:
It's 36 weeks gestation .... no apostrophe needed. I think some of you may not be aware that punctuation and grammar do not always follow the norms in medical or nursing English. We have our own shorthand that is well understood and accepted in the field. For example, did you know that placing a question mark before a word, phrase or diagnosis means simply that we are investigating something?

eg: ? pregnancy
? MI (Myocardial infarction)

This is also sometimes written (at least in North America) as R/O , meaning Rule Out.
The process here is the same. We will investigate and rule out a variety of disorders or situations that may be causing the symptoms or behaviour. In this case, though we will only write the R/O once, and then list what we are investigating. When using the question mark method, we will write ? in front of each item.

eg: R/O MI
Angina
Gastritis
Hypochondriasis
Hysteria

Most facilities in Canada have a list of approved abbreviations that all health professionals are to review and use. We cannot simply make-up our own (as many would like to do). The lists are available on all units at the Nursing Station.

Hope this helps.... Melodie (Nursing Instructor)