Re: [NTLK] Grammar question

From: PaulMmn (PaulMmn_at_ix.netcom.com)
Date: Thu Jan 24 2002 - 00:12:41 EST


>What is correct?

I'd have said, "Which is correct?"

>
>a) He was staring at the MessagePads screen.
>b) He was staring at the MessagePad's screen.

B. This assumes there is only 1 MessagePad.
If you have multiple Message Pads, it would be, "He was staring at
the Message Pads' screens."

>
>c) Peters car was very red.
>d) Peter's car was very red.

D. It doesn't matter if Peter currently owns or used to own his car.
It was his and was very red.

>
>e) "Would you please heed my advice?"
>f) "Would you please heed my advice'?
>
>g) "I wonder if we should do this".
>h) "I wonder if we should do this."

E and H. The puncuation goes inside the quotes.

I have strayed from this rule in the computer age when I'm quoting
something from a computer screen, and don't want to give the
impression that the punctuation is part of what's being quoted.
However, I'll often re-cast the sentence so the quoted portion isn't
near the end of the sentence:

        "Please key in 'FRAMMISTAN'.

        Key FRAMMISTAN then press the ENTER key.

--Paul E Musselman
PaulMmn_at_ix.netcom.nospam.com

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