• Why is the apostrophe used instead of the quotation mark?

    From Denis Mosko@2:5064/54.1315 to All on Sun Apr 5 15:33:22 2020
    David said, "Today we shall all be working hard, don't slack off".

    David said, 'Today we shall all be working hard, don't slack off'.

    See how silly the second one is, using the same punctuation mark for the missing letter in don't as for what David spoke?

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  • From Mike Powell@1:2320/105 to DENIS MOSKO on Sun Apr 5 12:55:00 2020
    @MSGID: <5E89F31C.964.englisht@capitolcityonline.net>
    David said, "Today we shall all be working hard, don't slack off".

    David said, 'Today we shall all be working hard, don't slack off'.

    See how silly the second one is, using the same punctuation mark for the missing letter in don't as for what David spoke?

    I do not think that the second one is correct for how one would normally punctuate that sentence in English. We would normally use the double-quote
    as in the first example. We would also put the period at the end inside of
    the second double-quote mark.

    Mike


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  • From Anton Shepelev@2:221/6 to Mike Powell on Mon Apr 6 00:40:16 2020
    Mike Powell - DENIS MOSKO:

    @MSGID: <5E89F31C.964.englisht@capitolcityonline.net>
    David said, "Today we shall all be working hard, don't slack
    off".

    David said, 'Today we shall all be working hard, don't slack
    off'.

    See how silly the second one is, using the same punctuation
    mark for the missing letter in don't as for what David spoke?

    I do not think that the second one is correct for how one would
    normally punctuate that sentence in English.

    Especially in ASCII, where the same character plays the roles of
    the apostrophe and of the opening single quotation mark.

    We would normally use the double-quote as in the first example.
    We would also put the period at the end inside of the second
    double-quote mark.

    inside *of*? I think that `inside' is a complete preposition by
    itself. The placement of the full stop insde the quotation is more
    beautiful than outside it, whereas the logically correct
    punctuation is the ugliest:

    David said "Today we shall all be working hard, don't slack off.".

    Both the quoted and quoting sentences shall have their terminating
    punctuation. No comma is logically required after `said' because
    David's utternace is its direct object.

    David's request sounds rather illogical after the promise of hard
    work, unless is addressed to someone wihtout the group to which
    "we" refers...

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  • From Mike Powell@1:2320/105 to ANTON SHEPELEV on Mon Apr 6 19:45:00 2020
    David said "Today we shall all be working hard, don't slack off.".

    Both the quoted and quoting sentences shall have their terminating punctuation. No comma is logically required after `said' because
    David's utternace is its direct object.

    I was always taught to put a comma after the "said," and to put the ending period inside the quotes, like this:

    David said, "Today we shall all be working hard, don't slack off."

    Maybe someone who is better at grammar should take a go at it. :)

    Mike


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  • From Anton Shepelev@2:221/6 to Mike Powell on Tue Apr 7 12:12:10 2020
    Mike Powell - ANTON SHEPELEV:

    David said "Today we shall all be working hard, don't slack
    off.".

    Both the quoted and quoting sentences shall have their
    terminating punctuation. No comma is logically required after
    `said' because David's utternace is its direct object.

    I was always taught to put a comma after the "said," and to put
    the ending period inside the quotes, like this:

    David said, "Today we shall all be working hard, don't slack off."

    Maybe someone who is better at grammar should take a go at it. :)

    You were taught right, Mike. I only wrote that this traditional
    punctuation is beautiful yet very illogical. And sometimes
    beautiful is preferrable.

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  • From Mike Powell@1:2320/105 to ANTON SHEPELEV on Tue Apr 7 17:45:00 2020
    You were taught right, Mike. I only wrote that this traditional
    punctuation is beautiful yet very illogical. And sometimes
    beautiful is preferrable.

    LOL, no doubt. Like a lot of things in our grammar, the punctuation is
    also illogical at times.

    Take Care!
    Mike


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  • From Ardith Hinton@1:153/716 to Mike Powell on Wed Apr 8 21:30:28 2020
    Hi, Mike! Recently you wrote in a message to Denis Mosko:

    David said, "Today we shall all be working hard, don't slack off".

    David said, 'Today we shall all be working hard, don't slack off'.

    See how silly the second one is, using the same punctuation mark
    for the missing letter in don't as for what David spoke?

    I do not think that the second one is correct for how one would
    normally punctuate that sentence in English. We would normally
    use the double-quote as in the first example.


    North Americans tend to prefer double quotation marks whereas those
    from the UK & other parts of the British Commonwealth don't. Denis has a point
    in that our keyboards & Fidonet software make no distinction between the single
    quotation mark & the apostrophe. Readers who are learning English as a foreign
    language may find this confusing. But as a Canadian with an ex-Brit background
    I accept whichever way others do it because I'm quite used to seeing both. :-)



    We would also put the period at the end inside of the
    second double-quote mark.


    And re this example the order would be the same in US & UK English.




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