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Grammar dilemma

7 years ago

So... I'm not the smartest person in the world when it comes to grammar. I find I have most difficulty when it comes to speech and what follows it. Personally, I've always thought the rule on speech was that, if the quote ends with a comma, follow it with a lowercase letter (Unless of course it's followed by I or a name) and if the speech ends with a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark, follow it with a capital letter. For example:

"I am hungry," said Suzy.

"Would you like some cake?" Asked Gary.

But I've found a lot of people tend to follow both with a lowercase letter:

"Would you like some cake?" asked Gary.

Does anyone know which is correct? I can't seem to find a definitive answer online.

Grammar dilemma

7 years ago
The latter is correct.

Grammar dilemma

7 years ago

Thank you ^_^

Is that true of full stops too? Would it be:

"I have nothing more to say to you." And with that, you turn around and walk away.

or

"I have nothing more to say to you." and with that, you turn around and walk away.

Grammar dilemma

7 years ago
Commended by JJJ-thebanisher on 2/13/2017 2:07:35 PM
The reason why a full stop is often replaced with a comma is because the sentence doesn't end with the end of the dialog. If at the end of someone's dialog there is a full stop, that means that the next word should be capitalized. If the sentence continues after the person has finished saying something, then it isn't capitalized. Here are some examples:
1. "Have you seen anything unusual?" you ask, turning to the old man. He replies with a shake of his head, but still doesn't say a single word to you.
2. Turning to the old man, you ask, "Have you seen anything unusual?" He replies with a shake of his head, but still doesn't say a single word to you.
See the difference? In the first example, the sentence continues after the second quotation mark. In the second one, a new one is started instead. The sentence in your post follows the second example:
"I have nothing more to say to you." And with that, you turn around and walk away.
I hope this was understandable, I am not good at giving advice. If anything is wrong, then please tell me so.

Grammar dilemma

7 years ago
Mayana's got it exactly right. But punctuation of dialogue for whatever reason is something absolutely everyone seems fuzzy on, I see the same confusion pop up on other writing sites too.

Grammar dilemma

7 years ago
I think the confusion comes from the fact that some grammar rules are much different in other countries. To name an example, in Slovenia if the dialog doesn't come first in a sentence, such as in the example #2 in my previous post, a comma is replaced with a colon, like this:
Turning to the old man, you ask: "Have you seen anything unusual?"
Because of differences like that, some people write things the wrong way, others follow them and in the end nobody is sure what's right. :)

Grammar dilemma

7 years ago

Thanks everybody! I've learned something new today. ^_^