2 ms·
Did you really say, "I tend to agree with the author?" See the problem there? The quoted sentence is not a question, but the outer sentence is; why, then, is t
by JasonFruit 5y ago
Did you really say, "I tend to agree with the author?"
See the problem there? The quoted sentence is not a question, but the outer sentence is; why, then, is the question mark inside the quotation marks? Double punctuation would solve that ambiguity, and would not be redundant.
Alternatively, and I'm not sure which is correct, if the question mark is outside the quotation marks, was the quote a complete sentence?
- abduhl 5y agoThe question mark is supposed to go outside the quote if it is not part of the quote, FYI. Same with exclamation points. Internalizing only happens with periods and commas.
- JasonFruit 5y agoThat's what it looked like to me, too, but isn't it telling that we can't treat punctuation consistently?
- CiceroCiceronis 5y agoWe can treat it consistently, it just takes a full book-length style guide to do so. Exceptions of exceptions are a frustrating form of consistency, but they are consistent nevertheless.
- JasonFruit 5y agoIn any colloquial sense, the existence of exceptions means there is inconsistency.
- quesera 5y agoAlso awkward: Did you ask, "Is this your dog?"?