On Wed, 23 Jan 2002 19:05:32 -0500, "PCBman" <pcbman_at_ix.netcom.com> said:
>
> Ok Frank, as an Englishman I feel qualified to answer this.
>
> > Yes, this is Newton related, too. Wait and see...
> >
> > I'm having a problem with the usage of the ' and the " characters.
> >
> > What is correct?
>
> Which of these statements are correct?
>
> >
> > a) He was staring at the MessagePads screen.
> > b) He was staring at the MessagePad's screen.
>
> Both incorrect.
>
> He was staring at the MessagePads' screen.
>
> This is possessive. The screen 'belongs' to the MessagePad.
This is fun. Actually, I believe that MessagePads' means "the possessive
form of the plural MessagePad". Hence, in the statement above, I read
only one MessagePad, and would have expected MessagePad's.
Of course, there is a variation with names, depending on whether the name
ends in a letter 's'.
Steve's ball.
but,
Francis' ball.
>
> >
> > c) Peters car was very red.
> > d) Peter's car was very red.
>
> Again, both incorrect.
> Possesive. The car 'belongs' to Peter.
>
> Peters' car was very red.
> Perhaps, Peter still has the car so - Peters' car IS very red.
Again, there was only one Peter, hence I would have said d) is correct.
> [snip]
>
> >
> > g) "I wonder if we should do this".
> > h) "I wonder if we should do this."
>
> h) Is correct for the reasons outlined above.
>
> Basically, use " to enclose what someone says, including the punctuation
> marks.
This is technically true. It is stricly correct to put the punctuation
inside the quotes. However, placing the punctuation inside the quotes
has become far less common in popular written forms of media, and
technical or user manuals, etc.
I've seen this discussed in other forums. It has gotten to the point
where either is acceptable, unless your writing something that is going
to evaluated by a stickler.
>
> Use 's when the subject is plural (more than one).
>
> Use s' when you are referring to something that belongs to the person
> or
> thing.
>
Um, not to my knowledge (and yes, my job does involve me writing for most
of the day). 's for singular possessive, s' for plural possessive, and
for possessive forms of names that end in 's'.
> Don't mix " and '.
>
> Also, except where ' replaces 1 or more letters, use two of them.
>
> 'example'
>
> don't (do not)
>
> Hope this helps
Sure, umm...contraction, right? There are some odd forms of this like:
"would not" becomes "won't"
Gavin.
>
> PCBman
> >
>[snip]
-- Gavin McKenzie gavin_mckenzie_at_fastmail.fm-- This is the Newtontalk mailinglist - http://www.newtontalk.net To unsubscribe or manage: visit the above link or mailto:newtontalk-request_at_newtontalk.net?Subject=unsubscribe
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