Hey Grammar Police!!!

Liann

Liann

Cathlete
I need help with this. My DH is writing a paper and in it he has this sentence:

It was strong, yet had "drinkability."

It's a market research paper on beer, lol. Anyways, my gut instinct is that the ending quotation mark should go before the period since what is in the quotations isn't a sentence. Does anyone know the rule on this?
 
LauraMax said:
Nope, the quotation marks go AFTER the period/question mark/exclamation point etc.
In the United States, periods and commas go inside quotation marks regardless of logic. Click HERE for an explanation (sort of).

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/marks/quotation.htm
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I've seen that rule too. I've been looking it up online and there is a lot of dissent on how it should be used. Apparently the British have it right and us Americans have messed up the language again. ;) I actually like it better the British way. It makes more sense to me.
 
Sorry Liann, my comment isn't grammar related, but speaking about the way things taste reminded me of something funny (and I admit a l'il corny) that I heard in high school years ago. A friend told me about her aunt who recently enjoyed a meal with lamb. She described it as tasty, and not too baa-ish :D
 
Liann said:
I've seen that rule too. I've been looking it up online and there is a lot of dissent on how it should be used. Apparently the British have it right and us Americans have messed up the language again. ;) I actually like it better the British way. It makes more sense to me.
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Yeah I know. Americans have completely butchered the English language. It's the AP rule & about 15 years ago I had a debate w/a coworker about it, which is why I remember it so well.

In my current job we've also had a lot of back & forth about the word "charette." It's a French word that had one "R" in it, but we Americans decided it should have 2 "Rs." I have personally decided I will continue to use the original spelling. :p

Why must we bastardize everything? :D
 
Hmmm... I`m in Canada. We use the British grammar. The WORD is in quotations. The period is the end of the SENTENCE.
 
LauraMax said:
Yeah I know. Americans have completely butchered the English language. It's the AP rule & about 15 years ago I had a debate w/a coworker about it, which is why I remember it so well.

In my current job we've also had a lot of back & forth about the word "charette." It's a French word that had one "R" in it, but we Americans decided it should have 2 "Rs." I have personally decided I will continue to use the original spelling. :p

Why must we bastardize everything? :D
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According to many language historians, it is actually the British who have bastardized the language. I frequently point out this fact to my English husband. He doesn't like it...hence, I do it:D!

Carrie
 
Liann said:
I've seen that rule too. I've been looking it up online and there is a lot of dissent on how it should be used. Apparently the British have it right and us Americans have messed up the language again. ;) I actually like it better the British way. It makes more sense to me.
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My son learned this the hard way. He had to write a paper for General Music class and put the period outside the quotes at the end of the sentence. The music teacher took off a point every single time he did it, so he ended up with a low grade on the paper. I was furious - even an English teacher wouldn't have penalized him for the same mistake multiple times. He ended up with a B in the class as a result - he's a straight A student. Crazy, but we won't make that mistake again!

Erica
 
carres1973 said:
According to many language historians, it is actually the British who have bastardized the language. I frequently point out this fact to my English husband. He doesn't like it...hence, I do it:D!

Carrie
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Really? The British eh? I not sure I like that... it seems very wrong to put the quotations after the period. If you look at the sentence as a whole, it is the "word" that should be in quotations. Sorry. I have to say the AMERICANS bastardized it.
Now, what if the "word" were near the beginning or middle of the sentence. Would you still put the quotations after the period?
Are we taliking about AMERICAN language historians? LOL!
 
carres1973 said:
According to many language historians, it is actually the British who have bastardized the language. I frequently point out this fact to my English husband. He doesn't like it...hence, I do it:D!

Carrie
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OK, just so I have this straight..........the British bastardized the language (& I had a prof who spoke ye olde english, I could not understand a word of it!), then we bastardized their bastardization.

I think from now on I'm just gonna speak in acronyms. KWIM? LOL!
 
Hmmmm......I'm going in the way back maching to grammar school and Language Arts class, but we were taught that it depends on the circumstances.

If the quotes are surrounding a spoken phrase, the punctuation goes INSIDE the quotes.

Liann said "I don't understand where the punctuation goes."

If the quotes are used to describe or emphasize, the punctuation goes on the outside.

This beer has a lot of "drinkability".


Of course, the punctuation on the outside just looks odd.

On the other hand, I'd just try to avoid the situation :p I don't think that "drinkability" is a standard dictionary word, but it is in beer circles, so I think you can get away with out the quotes. Or find a different word/phrase to subsitute.

This beer is very flavorful and would pair well with almost anything.

My $.02

Nan

Why is there no cents sign on an American keyboard?
 
spyrosmom said:
This beer is very flavorful and would pair well with almost anything.

My $.02

Nan

Why is there no cents sign on an American keyboard?
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Don't you mean the beer is flavourful? :D

There are no cents signs on an American keyboard b/c we have no cents. ;)
 
I wanted to add that the period goes outside the quotes if the item in quotes is a letter or number and it ends the sentence.
Example ---
He got an "A".

I was reading up on this a bit and apparently the differences between the American way of doing this and the British way has something to do with the way type was set back a long time ago. Didn't have time to read more however.

I disagree that Americans bastardize everything.
 
In my go-to source for all things grammatical (Words Into Type), the punctuation would go inside the quotation mark.

Their example:

A high leak resistance may cause the tube to "block."

However, they also say this about what to do with the word:

In a book of a serious nature such an unusual word or expression is often quoted -- or italicized -- only the first time it is used.

I know you didn't ask about that, but thought I'd throw it in anyway.

I didn't read the other posts (in a rush), so sorry if this is redundant! (And is the beer really that good?)
 
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