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"This, that, & etc."
always get me going.
This not that
- Thread starter The Mirrorball Man
- Start date
*sigh* tell me about it - my local baker is "open on sunday's from 8 to 10:30" Arrgh!!!!
Here on the BBS, you can occasionally find the wrong plural >'s< in posts made by native speakers of Dutch as in their language you really form the plural of certain nouns this way. As we all know it is difficult to overcome old habits. (Which is why we Germans are quite generous with commas in our posts)
What also irks me is that many fanfic authors seem unable to gather the difference between hangar and hanger. Even a master pilot might find it somewhat difficult to park a shuttle in as tiny a space as a hanger offers...
And then there's the difference between your and you're. "You're weapons don't work", is a sentence I found last week in an otherwise not all that bad Highlander fanfic. *shudders*
And while I am at it: dear writers of HL fiction, the guy's name is Connor, not Conner MacLeod!!
^^Yeap............There can be only one.
True to a certain extent, an optimal solution isn't always the best you can get. It's just the best you can get in the situation.
i.e Finding the optimal balance between features and price can be a problem.
Remove one of those restrictions i.e price and you can get a better solution.
But it does lead to a nice little scene from The Wire.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KICPv7mqlis[/yt]
Here's what someone explained to me and I agree. If you use the " marks, put the comma inside because you're doing the American usage ("This is an example," said Alidar Jarok). However, if you want to put the comma outside the quotation mark, you have to follow the British custom ('They use single marks in England', Alidar said). I think that's a fair rule. This: "I am putting the period outside the quote". is wrong.
Nope double quotation marks are in common usage in Britain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotation_mark
Whilst an over simplifcation and not a hard and fast rule, non-fiction punctuation marks should in be outside of the quotattion marks, whilst if fiction they should be within.
But as I said it's not a hard and fast rule. So long as you consistant in your usage it doesn't matter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotation_mark
Whilst an over simplifcation and not a hard and fast rule, non-fiction punctuation marks should in be outside of the quotattion marks, whilst if fiction they should be within.
But as I said it's not a hard and fast rule. So long as you consistant in your usage it doesn't matter.
That's interesting. When I learned the AP news writing style 20+ years ago, the rule was a period or comma always went within quotation marks; colons, question marks etc. went within if they pertained to the quoted matter, outside if they pertained to the larger sentence.
One thing I see a lot now is improper punctuation for quotes within quotes. You're supposed to alternate, single quotes within double or vice versa, but a lot of times now people put double within double. Same with parentheses: You're supposed to put brackets within parentheses, then braces within that. But parentheses within parentheses seems fairly common now.
Justin
“I helped my uncle Jack off a horse”, not “i helped my uncle jack off a horse”
Some of us guy's are girl's
(or gurlz, even)
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Reminds me of the Dexys Midnight Runners song "Come On Eileen." There should be a comma after "on"; otherwise, it has a completely different meaning.
*sigh* tell me about it - my local baker is "open on sunday's from 8 to 10:30" Arrgh!!!!
Here on the BBS, you can occasionally find the wrong plural >'s< in posts made by native speakers of Dutch as in their language you really form the plural of certain nouns this way. As we all know it is difficult to overcome old habits. (Which is why we Germans are quite generous with commas in our posts
What also irks me is that many fanfic authors seem unable to gather the difference between hangar and hanger. Even a master pilot might find it somewhat difficult to park a shuttle in as tiny a space as a hanger offers...
And then there's the difference between your and you're. "You're weapons don't work", is a sentence I found last week in an otherwise not all that bad Highlander fanfic. *shudders*
And while I am at it: dear writers of HL fiction, the guy's name is Connor, not Conner MacLeod!!
The other use of this that drives me batty is putting an "'s" after a number - "The 1980's were a much simpler time..."
Arrrgh indeed!!
Fictional characters. It's...
Anakin not Anikan or Annakin
Gandalf not Gandolf
Gollum not Golem
Uhura not Uhuru
Britney Spears not Britanny Spears
Anakin not Anikan or Annakin
Gandalf not Gandolf
Gollum not Golem
Uhura not Uhuru
Britney Spears not Britanny Spears
I always suspected she was created by a record company...
Have you noticed how few people make proper use of these and those?
And what really makes me want to scream is that nowadays both in past tense sentences and indirect speech even well-known newspapers use may instead of might all the time. "He decided that he may not go home after all." - He MIGHT not, damn it!!!!!
And what really makes me want to scream is that nowadays both in past tense sentences and indirect speech even well-known newspapers use may instead of might all the time. "He decided that he may not go home after all." - He MIGHT not, damn it!!!!!
I like it when people call you a "grammar nazi" when you corrected their spelling mistakes.
Ironically, most of them call you a "grammer nazi".
Or even better, "grammer nazi's."
This video has been a HUGE hit in New Mexico because it pretty well describes all the grammatical quirks we "Burquenos" use in our daily linguistic adventures.
I give to you now: "Shit Burquenos Say Pt. 1"
And Pt. 2
I give to you now: "Shit Burquenos Say Pt. 1"
And Pt. 2
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