Grammar Help - Dumb Question Time

Shayper · 8 Jan 2012 at 15:51

Was gonna say, holy thread necro!

Jay794 · 8 Jan 2012 at 15:54

"Quotation marks are doubled like this"

'singles are just calls apostrophes, as is my understanding they are only used when omitting certain letters e.g.

there's (there is, omitting the i)
goin' (omitting the g)

Not sure if thats 100% correct but thats what I thought anyway

JonJ678 · 8 Jan 2012 at 16:39

"" allows variable substitution within the string, '' doesn't.

'ssh -p 2000' or "ssh -p 2000" is fine
PORT=2000 ; "ssh -p $PORT" is fine, 'ssh -p $PORT' won't work.

Sort of relevant to the thread. It's still syntax after all.

Edrof · 8 Jan 2012 at 16:53

Jay794 said:
"Quotation marks are doubled like this"

'singles are just calls apostrophes, as is my understanding they are only used when omitting certain letters e.g.

there's (there is, omitting the i)
goin' (omitting the g)

Not sure if thats 100% correct but thats what I thought anyway

They are not only used (as apostrophes) for indicating omissions and possession, but also used for speech.

US books (and many UK ones now) often use 'the single quotation mark,' as opposed to "the more traditional double" when indicating speech, so single and double are somewhat interchangeable in that sense. Just another example of confusing punctuation! The key is to choose which 'solution' and stick to it (or grab yourself a manual of style).

SourChipmunk · 9 Jan 2012 at 13:38

Edrof said:
US books (and many UK ones now) often use 'the single quotation mark,' as opposed to "the more traditional double" when indicating speech, so single and double are somewhat interchangeable in that sense. Just another example of confusing punctuation! The key is to choose which 'solution' and stick to it (or grab yourself a manual of style).

Huh? Not any book that I've ever read. Got any examples?

Why all the confusion with quotes? Nothing has changed over the years. If you are saying something, you put it in double-quotes. If you are quoting a person within a quote, you use single-quotes (apostrophies). Punctuation belongs with the sentence.

Sally said, "Yes, I was talking with Francis. He told me, 'you're going to be killed tonight!' which totally freaked me out."