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Post by Deleted on May 6, 2014 16:36:59 GMT -5
We get everything. We produce nothing, but we consume a lot. We like it that way.  ETA: Well, we produce the best beer and the best chocolate.  Mmm, Belgian chocolate... I'm not so surprised about QI, but I wouldn't have thought that Have I Got News For You would be a good export. It's one of the most British things I can think of! It's awesome that people in other countries are enjoying it, though. It's on our cable. As are German, French, Dutch, Italian and Turkish stations. We do import as well. We got to see the last season of Kingdom four months before it aired in the UK.
*where is the smug smiley?* |
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Post by Rinelle Grey on May 6, 2014 20:44:56 GMT -5
I write in UK English (well, Australian English technically, but it's closest to UK). My books aren't set in America (they're fantasy and sci-fi, set in made up worlds), so I don't see any reason to use American English. I did consider it, but when I asked a few questions, people pointed out that I was unlikely to be able to catch every single difference (there are so many different word choices, or slightly different phrasing as well as spelling and grammar), and the ones that I missed would stand out more than if I just wrote in correct UK English, so I stuck with that. As far as I know, I haven't had any negative comments about the differences.
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Post by Rinelle Grey on May 6, 2014 20:49:12 GMT -5
You know, I've read this, that British use single quotes for dialogue, but I've never actually known anyone who does it. Maybe it's a more recent thing? I was always taught double quotes for speech. |
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Post by Becca Mills on May 6, 2014 23:46:21 GMT -5
You know, I've read this, that British use single quotes for dialogue, but I've never actually known anyone who does it. Maybe it's a more recent thing? I was always taught double quotes for speech. I see it all the time in academic texts. It makes perfect sense: single quote marks for quotes, double quote marks for quotes within quotes. Punctuating around quotes also makes much more sense the British way. |
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Post by Rinelle Grey on May 7, 2014 0:10:03 GMT -5
Maybe it's one of the few British punctuation that Australia hasn't picked up!  |
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Post by lindymoone on May 7, 2014 2:53:00 GMT -5
Go ahead, insult us! We're either too dumb to get it, or able to laugh at the ones too dumb to get it ourselves. Or we send in the drones. Or the evangelists. It's all good. If we couldn't laugh at ourselves, would the Simpsons have been on the air this long? Or South Park? Frankly, this isn't the insulting one. This is just dissing irresponsible parents who put shirts on their kids without knowing what is printed on them. Or something. And I hope you were joking, as was I. Finally: you're right. Though the British are also masters at taking a piss at themselves. Not only in their sitcoms, but also in shows like QI and Have I Got News For You. Actually, I was just hoping to see the insulting one, but I understand.... British humor is my favorite, since I grew up along the Canadian border and we had many more Canadian TV channels than American. They showed a lot of British shows, including classics. My mother was particularly fond of watching Monty Python with us. (She would pretend not to laugh, but have to run to the bathroom sometimes... or she'd wet 'em!) I agree -- Brits are the masters of taking the piss at themselves. I always cringe when Americans remake British shows. It seldom ends with anything but a whimper. Not that we don't have some good shows. The Big Bang Theory was laugh-out-loud funny the first few seasons. (That isn't a remake, is it? If it is, it's one of the good ones, IMHO.) I live in a seasonally touristy area of Turkey, and I see oblivious people walking around with these inappropriate T-shirts all the time. Sometimes they are truly embarrassing. I've noticed that even when someone understands that they are using a foreign swear word, it just doesn't feel like swearing, not to them. But call someone a "cucumber" here, and you might get punched! |
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Post by Victoria on May 7, 2014 3:11:09 GMT -5
You know, I've read this, that British use single quotes for dialogue, but I've never actually known anyone who does it. Maybe it's a more recent thing? I was always taught double quotes for speech. Our printed books do. I used to use them, but when I was writing fanfiction one of my American readers said she found it hard to read. I tried double ones instead and found that they are a lot clearer to read on a screen. I'm sticking with doubles for that reason, and as a concession to the fact that most of my readers probably are in the US. |
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Post by removinglimbs on May 7, 2014 7:50:20 GMT -5
I use American English because that's what I know. Other types of English don't bother me to read--I don't even notice it. Funny, I think when I read Christie that the narrator in my head has a British accent.
I'll be honest, the punctuation outside of quotation marks is a big thing for me. It's a pet peeve when I see it screwed up in American publications, especially websites/blogs/news that are obviously American. I always try to give the writer the benefit of the doubt and assume they are used to writing British English. But, truthfully, I think it's usually because they don't know the rules of American English.
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Post by Suzy on May 7, 2014 7:56:00 GMT -5
I have never put punctuation outside quotation marks and write British English. I was told it always had to be on the inside. As for single quotes, that used to be the norm in British novels up until a few years ago but I think most writers are now using the double ones.
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Post by cbedwards on May 7, 2014 8:48:53 GMT -5
I have never put punctuation outside quotation marks and write British English. I was told it always had to be on the inside. As for single quotes, that used to be the norm in British novels up until a few years ago but I think most writers are now using the double ones. Good! |
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Post by Victoria on May 7, 2014 9:10:36 GMT -5
I use American English because that's what I know. Other types of English don't bother me to read--I don't even notice it. Funny, I think when I read Christie that the narrator in my head has a British accent. I'll be honest, the punctuation outside of quotation marks is a big thing for me. It's a pet peeve when I see it screwed up in American publications, especially websites/blogs/news that are obviously American. I always try to give the writer the benefit of the doubt and assume they are used to writing British English. But, truthfully, I think it's usually because they don't know the rules of American English. Is this a thing? I don't think you're meant to put punctuation on the outside of quotation marks here, either. Having said that, I can imagine a situation where I might (no idea if it's actually correct). For example: I like the word "sneeze" better than the word "cough".That *seems* more correct to me, because I'm quoting a word as part of my external sentence. I don't know if that's right, though. I would always, always put it inside the quotation marks for speech, though. |
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Post by Pru Freda on May 7, 2014 9:30:36 GMT -5
I do it exactly the same as she. With regard to double and single quotes: although my memory may be faulty, I'm sure that British usage of single quotation marks has come about within my lifetime. I can't find when the change took place and nor do I see the sense in it. Even though I write fundamentally British stories, set here in England, I use double quotes. However I had a short story published in a UK anthology and the editor insisted I change them all.  One way of dealing with it is something I've seen in some European book where quotation marks around dialogue are done away with completely. Thus. The great hound with its slathering jaws stood before them. Watson grasped his revolver tightly. - Should I shoot it, Holmes? - Yes shoot it. Shoot it dead. Watson fired. |
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Post by Becca Mills on May 7, 2014 12:27:29 GMT -5
I'm not sure on the punctuation-around-quote-marks rule in UK English for dialogue, which is the way you usually use quote marks in fiction. But in academic writing, where you primarily use quote marks around quotations from other texts, the UK seems to follow the very sensible rule that the punctuation goes inside the quote marks if it was in the text you're quoting but outside the quote marks if you're adding it yourself.
In U.S. English, periods and commas ALWAYS go inside the quote marks, semicolons and colons ALWAYS go outside, and question and exclamation marks follow the British rule -- inside if they're in the original, outside if you're adding them. It's a silly mish-mash.
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Post by vrabinec on May 7, 2014 13:32:30 GMT -5
I'm not sure on the punctuation-around-quote-marks rule in UK English for dialogue, which is the way you usually use quote marks in fiction. But in academic writing, where you primarily use quote marks around quotations from other texts, the UK seems to follow the very sensible rule that the punctuation goes inside the quote marks if it was in the text you're quoting but outside the quote marks if you're adding it yourself. In U.S. English, periods and commas ALWAYS go inside the quote marks, semicolons and colons ALWAYS go outside, and question and exclamation marks follow the British rule -- inside if they're in the original, outside if you're adding them. It's a silly mish-mash. This is why I need an editor. |
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Post by removinglimbs on May 7, 2014 16:00:13 GMT -5
Yes, I meant something like this (I stole this from a website):
A crisis in the US subprime mortgage market will affect Britain, he said, warning that the housing market is likely to weaken as a result. However, he insisted that the economy is starting from “a very strong position”.
In the U.S., that period would be inside the quotation mark. Frankly, I think the British way does make more sense, but it still grinds me a bit to see it in U.S. journalism.
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Post by Victoria on May 7, 2014 16:08:03 GMT -5
I'm not sure on the punctuation-around-quote-marks rule in UK English for dialogue, which is the way you usually use quote marks in fiction. But in academic writing, where you primarily use quote marks around quotations from other texts, the UK seems to follow the very sensible rule that the punctuation goes inside the quote marks if it was in the text you're quoting but outside the quote marks if you're adding it yourself. In U.S. English, periods and commas ALWAYS go inside the quote marks, semicolons and colons ALWAYS go outside, and question and exclamation marks follow the British rule -- inside if they're in the original, outside if you're adding them. It's a silly mish-mash. Ohh, good example. I always did it the way you describe as the "UK way" when I was doing my English Lit degree, but I never really thought about why. But yes, it seems wrong (to me) to add punctuation to your quotation that isn't in your source. Surely that's misquoting (in a very minor way, of course, but in the course of that degree I got good at picking on small details and you can spin an entire paragraph out of the placement of a comma if you think hard enough)! |
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Post by Daniel on May 7, 2014 16:19:51 GMT -5
I come from a programming background. Punctuation inside a quoted string is part of the quoted string and can't influence the logic of the program. That very logical approach to syntax made me hate putting punctuation inside the quotes. I still grit my teeth over that occasionally.
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Post by Rinelle Grey on May 8, 2014 5:10:32 GMT -5
Yes, I meant something like this (I stole this from a website): A crisis in the US subprime mortgage market will affect Britain, he said, warning that the housing market is likely to weaken as a result. However, he insisted that the economy is starting from “a very strong position”. In the U.S., that period would be inside the quotation mark. Frankly, I think the British way does make more sense, but it still grinds me a bit to see it in U.S. journalism. Ahh. Yes, that makes sense. That's the way I'd do it. |
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Post by Alan Petersen on May 9, 2014 13:38:09 GMT -5
I don't think one is better than the other, it just depends where you're from or where you learned English.
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Post by Alan Petersen on May 9, 2014 13:48:35 GMT -5
I do believe as a writer we need to do our research regardless if you're writing British or American English to at least get the lingo correct. I believe EL James was criticized for her characters being American's born and living in Washington but saying things waiting in queue, or the lift vs the elevator. Stuff like that is lazy. It's like if I write about a character "slapping a magazine into his revolver". I actually read that once!
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