Re: Free books

On 2025-08-03 00:42, Richard Heathfield wrote:
> On 03/08/2025 07:01, Hibou wrote:
>> Le 03/08/2025 à 02:29, Peter Moylan a écrit :
>>>
>>> I have vaguely noticed that there are punctuation differences between
>>> AusE and AmE, but have never seen a place where the difference in rules
>>> is explained. The only one that really sticks out for me is the
>>> illogical placement of commas and periods on the wrong side of a
>>> quotation mark.
> 
> Likewise.
> 
>> It's usual in AmE to use double inverted commas for speech (and that's 
>> also my preference, because of their extra weight on the page), 
>> whereas single inverted commas are usual in BrE.
> 
> ``It's usual for me to use double inverted commas, because when I quote 
> speech `I don't trust single quotes to be strong enough to hold the 
> doubles in place', but the doubles have got the singles nailed.''

I'm intrigued by your 'double inverted commas' for two reasons.

1. In the example above, you have two characters at the beginning of the 
sentence and two at the end, in mirror image. Are those what you call 
'double inverted commas', and is that the normal usage in published 
literature?

1. In Canada, a quotation mark is not called inverted commas, and in 
fact, the are more like a single character with commas not inverted but 
just raised to the top of the character space, and in published works, 
one of that character is mirrored horizontally.

> That's an example of where the comma belongs outside the qutation marks 
> because it's not part of the quotation. The full stop, however, /is/ 
> part of the quoted sentence and is therefore brought into the fold.
> 
>>
>> The Americans also use a full stop after abbreviations such as Dr. and 
>> Mr.. (That double full stop is a Hibouisme - la logique avant tout !) 
>> In BrE, a full stop is used if the last letter of the abbreviation is 
>> not the last letter of the word - etc., Feb., Rev., but Mr not Mr. - 
>> and to avoid ambiguity - to the relief of the infamous coy. commander.
> 
> I was taught 40 years ago not to punctuate abbreviations, at least not 
> in business correspondence. It seemed like weird advice at the time, but 
> it has stood up to 40 years' hard use and has worn well.
> 
> Maybe what is usual in BrE isn't quite as usual as you thought.
> 

-- 
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