this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023
1105 points (98.4% liked)

Memes

45753 readers
2317 users here now

Rules:

  1. Be civil and nice.
  2. Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Now we need to figure out when the first ever usage of "no" in the English language was.

Also isn't the period supposed to be inside the quotation?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Is the period part of the quote?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

Probably not, but the convention is that periods and commas always stay within the quotes, whether the period or comma is a part of the quote or not. (This differs from what one expects from writing code.) When using question marks though, the placement does depend on whether the question mark is a part of the quote.

Edit: When I was younger, I also didn't know this and would place all punctuation marks according to whether it is a part of the quote. In fact, in my native language that is what you're supposed to do. To this day I still dislike this convention in English.

Edit 2: I know that this is an American English thing.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

If I remember correctly, this is a US thing. We were taught to place punctuation depending on whether they are part of the quote. So

I was reading 'War and Peace'.

but

She asked me 'Tea or coffee?'

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Fuck convention when it doesn't make sense, though. I'm gonna put stuff that's part of the quote within the quotes and nothing else.

[–] abbotsbury 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Learning programming before higher level English has created a strong distaste for that convention.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I also hate this convention tbh. Doesn't really make sense.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Don't those writing conventions and rules differ from region to region?

[–] Eylrid 3 points 1 year ago

It's a US thing.