Unless it terminates a sentence, and there are no sentences following! In which case, it is four....Originally Posted by Ouch!
Unless it terminates a sentence, and there are no sentences following! In which case, it is four....
Not necessarily. You could end that with a question mark or an exclamation point. You might even use an interrobang. An ellipsis is insufficient for ending a sentence, and therefore punctuation is necessary to do so.
However, this does not mean that two stops is sufficient!
Touché. ;P
One of my peeves is "Me and John are going to do it." Not only because "me" is an object pronoun, but also because "me/I" should be the final pronoun mentioned in the group.
Scarmiglione, I agree that "me" is wrong there, but me/I doesn't <i>have</i> to be the last in the list (from what I understand); it's just polite. Sometimes I do it intentionally to slight people, even if I'm the only one who is going to understand it. I'm strange/petty like that.
Secondly, I almost hate it more when people say, "She wanted to give it to him and I." I understand that whoever said it was trying, but "I" is not the all purpose answer to "person and self" situations.
And since I currently don't have <i>The Elements of Style</i> with me, I figure I may as well ask a question of my own: am I using quotation marks correctly in the above paragraphs?
I'm thinking that I might need to use single ones or none at all.
I don't see anything wrong with the way you used quotation marks. I prefer them over the use of single-quotes (or whatever they're called when you're not using them as an apostrophe); I only use those if I'm using a quote-within-a-quote (i.e., "She said 'let's go!'").
I don't think it's a grammatically correct option not to use quotation marks at all where you used them.
Single quotations is more of a British thing, if I remember properly. I don't see anything wrong with your use of quotations either.
Skimming the internets had suggested the single quote to me (it is primarily un-American), but I don't trust interwebs on grammar issues for obvious reasons.
Now that I've been reunited with my grammar books, <i>The Elements of Style</i> said nothing about it. However, <i>Writing: Grammar, Usage, and Style</i> (Cliffsnotes answer to a grammar book) and <i>Writers Inc</i> both support my quotes because it distinguishes a word being discussed.
So yeah, ends up Ouch! and Raistlin were right. Yay!
The right thread for me. I always have some grammar questions
And here's the first one:
I've been wondering about some contractions. The book I'm using to look up things I'm uncertain about is called Practical English Usage and there's a list of contractions inside. I'm wondering about the contraction could've and should've which can't be found in the list. I'm pretty sure the latter isn't a commonly accepted contraction. Actually even my Firefox spell checker marks it as wrong. What about the former though? Is it not so common in British English, is it not common at all (though I'm sure I've heard it more than once) or is it simply missing?
Btw, my book suggests single quotation marks for words we want to give special meanings to. The author is British though
Last edited by Krelian; 04-22-2008 at 09:59 PM.
If you're ever writing something where grammar is an issue, you shouldn't be using contractions in the first place.
That said, grammatically, "could've" and "should've" are fine as far as I know. MSWord does not consider them a misspelling.
Thanks for clarifying that. And of course you're right, if grammar is of importance I wouldn't use contractions :P
Yes they are correct. Contractions of "could/should have." The error would be saying "could/should of" or "coulda/shoulda."If you're ever writing something where grammar is an issue, you shouldn't be using contractions in the first place.
That said, grammatically, "could've" and "should've" are fine as far as I know. MSWord does not consider them a misspelling.
Ugh, I absolutely hate "should/could of".Yes they are correct. Contractions of "could/should have." The error would be saying "could/should of" or "coulda/shoulda."If you're ever writing something where grammar is an issue, you shouldn't be using contractions in the first place.
That said, grammatically, "could've" and "should've" are fine as far as I know. MSWord does not consider them a misspelling.Just because that's what it sounds like when you say it fast doesn't mean it's right.
"Should/could of" could never happen to me. That doesn't make any grammatical sense whatsoever, even if it does sound like the spoken versions O_o
Sometimes I see peeps put a comma before certain final words and sometimes not. Like with the word too. "I like it, too" or stuff like that. I see it with though a lot as well. How do you know when to comma it and when you don't. Unless you always do when it lands at the end and I'm just confused.
Also, when do you use actual numbers and when do you spell the number out.
I was too cheap to buy any books after all.
Last edited by LunarWeaver; 11-18-2008 at 10:41 PM.
I can only speak for myself, but I'm pretty sure that I was taught to put a comma before "too" and "though". Actually, I'm not so sure about "though", but I'm almost certain about "too". I've been using it less regularly, because I noticed many people didn't do it, but I still didn't know a rule. Today I looked it up in "Practical English Usage" and while it doesn't specifically say whether a comma does or doesn't belong there, all of the examples with "too" do not have a comma before it.
She not only sings; she plays the piano too.
With "though" it's different. The examples always have a comma.
Nice day. ~ Yes. Bit cold, though.
In medial positions "though" acts as a conjunction and has to be preceded by a comma.
I'd like to go out, though it is a bit late.
I can't find anything regarding "too" in medial positions, but I think it must be surrounded by commas if put there.
I, too, would like to go out.
So much for British English examples from a non-native speaker. I hope we can count on others to enlighten us more detailed
Generally speaking, I'm often unsure when to put a comma and when I shouldn't put one. German rules often differ from English rules and I never really learned English punctuation rules
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