Help with the "it's" and "its" rule.

  • Thread starter Thread starter G.T
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i'm mostly accurate with the apostophe rule, but what i don't understand is american grammar.

"well," said jason, "why not put a holley on it?"

i don't understand why the comma and the question mark are inside the quotation marks, since quotation marks are wrapped around speech, and you can't say a comma or question mark.

...goddamn. :grumpy:

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okay, i'm going to have to pull an intelligent moment here.

3-Wheel Drive
Apostrophes ARE used if dealing with possesives:
"the 1930's Great Depression"
"the 1800's Indutrial Revoultion"
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this would only work if you were referring to a single year - "1930's great depression" or "1800's industrial revolution". the ones you quoted are both are just a simplified way of saying "the great depression of the 1930s" or "the industrial revolution of the 1800s" - both being multiple years, and thus, plural (where more than one example is specified). note the lack of apostrophe?
 
Dropout.
i'm mostly accurate with the apostophe rule, but what i don't understand is american grammar.

"well," said jason, "why not put a holley on it?"

i don't understand why the comma and the question mark are inside the quotation marks, since quotation marks are wrapped around speech, and you can't say a comma or question mark.

...goddamn. :grumpy:
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You always finish punctuation before closing speech marks.
 
Dropout.
...but you can't SAY a question mark so it shouldn't be IN there!
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Well, actually you do. You change the pitch of your voice to say a question, right? It's the same with using the exclamation mark, too. That's how I manage to remember the rule.
 
you change the pitch of your voice to denote a question, or a proclamation or firm statement, but you don't pronounce the question mark, exclamation mark or full stop.

it's all just too contradictory for me. leave me alone. :lol:
 
Counterpoint: Here's why american grammar rules:

By ways of magic, the letter P emits an O sound during all instances of the word Pwn.

Amazing.
 
Just a note about the actual subject of the thread. I only learned the difference between "its" and "it's" fairly recently (after college). The way I remember it is that "its" is like "his" and "hers", possessive. That means "it's" has to be a contraction.

If you try to imagine writing "hi's", it really goes against the grain and makes it easy to remember when to write "its".
 
i know a guy that thinks doe's is correct.

i just leave him alone, it's like talking to an answering machine - it'll take in what you say and repeat it back to you, but it won't listen worth a fart. :lol:
 
Hey, since you guys are talking about punctuation and quotations and all that cool-kid stuff, how about answering me this.

1) Look at that girl, I bet she's "sweet".
2) And he said "Yeah, dude, she looks hella sweet."

You'll notice that in sentence 1 I put the period after that quotations. In sentance 2 I put the period within the quotations, because that was the end of the spoken sentence. I don't know all the lingo, but in an example like 1, is it proper to put the period after the quote, or should you put it inside, like 2? Number 1 isn't dialog, it's just putting a sarcastic-type feel to "sweet" (I don't know what you call that).
Which reminds me of another question I've had: Should the period in the preceeding sentence be inside or outside the parentesis?
 
american grammar is displayed in example #2. so far as i know, the rest of the world uses example #1.

the period should be outside the closing parenthesis, since it's not part of the text you wrapped in parentheses, but used to close the sentence. (if you were to add this on as an example, then you'd use a period.)

that usage of parentheses is generally displayed as an afterthought, not as an explanation that you might need to show (like 'this'), or as an example (like 'this'). in this version, the parentheses are used in the middle of a sentence so as to be able to explain a word or phrase at that moment, instead of adding it on after you finish the sentence. the other version is mainly used to show an afterthought, as i said.

geddit? :ouch:

which brings ME to a question. do sentences inside the parentheses need a full stop, as they ARE sentences that would otherwise use a period when they come to an end?
 
THere's not s'posed to be any apostrophe in does. It's a completely different word than "do"; it's not modified.

Damn, I'm just full of grammar questions, but I'll ask this one later so as not to change the subject until the current ones have been Faminized.
 
I know - just messing with you.

You should never put any punctuation inside parentheses. Ever (and I mean ever).
 
"Thank you", I said.

Now what about that comma? Makes sense to me that since it wasn't a part of the spoken sentence it shouldn't go inside the quotations.
 
keef
"Thank you", I said.

Now what about that comma? Makes sense to me that since it wasn't a part of the spoken sentence it shouldn't go inside the quotations.
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But it is. You're referring to a part of speech... It ought to be

"Thank you," I said.

Dropout.
okay - why not (and what happens if i have a question, should i not use this question mark?)?
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I've no idea why not. However, the bit you placed in parentheses didn't need to go in parentheses - and contained a comma... You should write:

Okay, why not - and what happens if I have a question?

Though there's some who'd argue against using a dash too.
 
I TRY to use a dash, but I just get confused on when to use it. It's the same with the semi-colon,which is the same thing, apparently...
 
Changed the title. Sorry, I just have a hard time with incorrect grammar. Though it was only a simple word transposing.
 
Ahh, the dash.

Okay, why not--and and what happens if I have a question?

I use two dashes with no spaces, like that^, because that's how you type it into Word to format the proper symbol, the single long dash that has no space between the adjacent words. I notice most of you guys use one single dash with spaces: ...blah - blah... I go like this: ...blah--blah... Same effect, different look. Blame it on Microsoft.

I have always been somewhat confused about where to use that dash and where to use a semicolon (;). I know a basic rule of semicolons that goes something like "a semicolon replaces a word like 'and' or 'but'." Beyond that I don't know any more details or if that rule applies to the dash. And does that dash have a name?
 
Famine
I've no idea why not. However, the bit you placed in parentheses didn't need to go in parentheses - and contained a comma... You should write:

Okay, why not - and what happens if I have a question?

Though there's some who'd argue against using a dash too.
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yes, that sounds about right to me. i'm pretty much just kicking things around right now to see how they feel.

the dash would seem a bit more fitting, because it's adding an intentional extra bit onto the same sentence, rather than explaining something (blah blah, you get the idea), or used as an afterthought. (something like this.)
 
Try to dictionary "dictionaty", Dropout, I bet you'll get even less. Of course, you did spell it correctly elsewhere in your post--more than Omnis could manage.
 
In the Englishand, I cannota finda this diccionatti! I'ma goin' backa to Italia!
 

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