Assume v. Presume

[Black Hole]

Do you think that I didn't know that and perhaps did it on purp'se
The incorrect use of the "'", especially when used in a plural annoy's me as well.

At least somebody else might learn sumfin!

 

[Black Hole]

Here's another one: when to use quotes and when speech marks.

 

[Trev]

"10, Ensuite Rooms" (sic)

That's the incorrect use of a comma, and that's another thing that annoys me or is it the incorrect use of a space?

 

[Trev]

"Here's another one: when to use quotes and when speech marks."

Are they not the same thing, showing his ignorance.

 

[Trev]

At least somebody else might learn sumfin!

Do you really think anyone else is watching our ramblings?

 

[4291]

You started it.

 

[Trev]

You started it.

Care to checkout post #70 or even post #1. I'm just a sheep. Baah

 

[4291]

I was trying to set you up for a Fawlty Towers joke. Perhaps not PC

 

[Black Hole]

Here's another one: when to use quotes and when speech marks.

Are they not the same thing, showing his ignorance.

Are we to take that seriously this time (cried wolf before)? 'In quotes', "in speech marks". Exact usage seems unclear (maybe Fenlander will consult his references). I am inclined to reserve speech marks for quoted speech and quotes for quoted text, but if the quoted text contains apostrophes it is clearer to use speech marks instead. But I have not been hard-and-fast about it (so far).

 

[oijonesey]

Oh yes, we're onto the Grocer's Apostrophe now ("Potatoe's £1 per lb").

Fish 'n' Chip's - there's another three gone - oh crap that's four, bugger now I've used up five - aaarrrrggghhhhh!!!!!!

[EDIT - six! And seven exclamation marks as well. And I've started a sentence with 'And' - twice - my English teacher said never to do that.

 

[Black Hole]

I was trying to set you up for a Fawlty Towers joke. Perhaps not P.C.

Or perhaps a Python joke (if you want it more PC)

 

[4291]

I'm doing this in my spare time!

 

[af123]

Our local Off-Licence has a new sign outside

"Draft Beer Available!"

I think I'll wait for the final version...

 

[4291]

These Americanisms are getting everywhere!

 

[fenlander]

Consulting my references...

Treble and Vallins are very interesting, because they normally pursue a conservative line grammatically. First of all, looking up 'quotation marks' redirects to 'inverted commas'. Next, they don't like quotation marks on principle:
'It is remarkable in an age peculiarly contemptuous of punctuation marks that we have not yet had the courage to abolish inverted commas. [..] After all, they are a modern invention. The Bible is plain enough without them, and so is the literature of the eighteenth century. Bernard Shaw scorns them. '

Throughout their examples, they always use the single inverted comma in preference to the double version, i.e. 'this' rather than "this". They suggest that inverted commas should be used for quotations only, titles should be distinguished by using italics: not 'Jane Eyre' or "The Tempest", but Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

Where one quote occurs inside another, the outer quote uses single inverted commas and the inner quote double:
'What did she say?'
'I thought I heard her say, "When shall we three meet again?".'

I must admit, I would normally use double quotes for the outer quotation and single quotes for the inner, but I have adopted the T&V rules for this post!

 

[Black Hole]

Titles are a bit tricky when italics are not available then! And T&V decry their use but use them anyway it seems

 

[fenlander]

I quoted only partially. They acknowledge, 'Yet inverted commas live on and thrive, an unnecessary puzzle to the writer and an eyesore to the reader. [..] since they are with us, we must do our best with them, trying always to reduce them to a minimum.' They then add 'a few hints', including those above. The implication is that this is one area of grammar where the rules are less than hard and fast.

 

[4291]

I must admit, I would normally use double quotes for the outer quotation and single quotes for the inner...

I would normally use them this way too.

 

[4291]

Which version of T&V are you quoting from? There is an American one.

 

[Trev]

The query on quotes/speech was genuine. Couple of points. Quotation marks should, I believe, be used to quote actual speech, usually from a third party, hence the alternative name - speech marks.

As The Tempest, is the title of a book and not actually a quotation, it should not be enclosed in either inverted commas or quotation marks.

My education, what there was of it, (GCE English lang., said that if there was a quotation inside a quotation, the inner one was single inverted commas and the outer one was quotation marks as in Alice said "Did Fred say 'This is a load of blx?' or did he say 'This is all good stuff.'" You will notice that the question mark and full stop (period for our US followers) are correctly placed inside the quotes. There is no requirement to put an additional full stop after the quoted full stop.
I'm being thick here but I have totally missed the Faulty Towers bit. Aha, Google is my friend and cam up with this My apologies for not coming in on cue. :-(

Exclamation marks should never be used in multiples, it uses them all up and is not good English!