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Grammar



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Tue Dec 25, 2012 1:32 pm
Blues says...



So I'm writing something at the moment and I have no idea if what I am writing is grammatically correct at all.

For example, if I wrote this:

If, with hindsight, you could give yourself advice, what would it be?

"Don't worry about money?"

"Spend less time on video games"?

"Learn a language while you're still young!"?


Where would I put the question marks - if I need to put them at all?

It's confusing me a lot for some reason so I'd be grateful for any answers. Thanks!
  





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Tue Dec 25, 2012 3:29 pm
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OokamiKitsune says...



Grammar is a very tricky thing and English is the hardest language to learn grammar in.

In the following quote you wrote I have highlighted the errors you made and will explain them at the end.

If, with hindsight, you could give yourself advice, what would it be?

"Don't worry about money?"

"Spend less time on video games."

"Learn a language while you're still young!"?


both mistakes are very similar the problem that a lot of people come to is that the sentence is not a question so you don't need a question mark, but you think it is a question. Sentences like these are hard to figure out but there is a cheat sheet I us. If you say just the sentence and it isn't something you would ask someone else than it doesn't get a question mark.

I am no grammar expert however I have had my fare share of English classes in College so I do know a lot about English
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Tue Dec 25, 2012 3:40 pm
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Jagged says...



I'd say the second way, with the question mark outside of the quote marks, is the clearest. Also would depend on if you're doing this in narration or more as a questionnaire kinda thing; in the latter case I'd just skip the quote and questions marks altogether.
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Tue Dec 25, 2012 9:09 pm
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Rosendorn says...



For school essays, the way my English teacher explained punctuation and quotes is:

If the punctuation is a part of the section you're quoting, place it within the quotes.

If the punctuation is your addition to what you're quoting, place it outside the quotes.

-
Now if this is a dialogue question, keep the punctuation relating to the speaking part within the quotes.
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Tue Dec 25, 2012 9:36 pm
Blues says...



Thanks all for your help! ^_^
  





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Tue Dec 25, 2012 11:19 pm
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Kale says...



There's another way that eliminates question and quotation marks entirely but remains grammatically correct: the list!

If, with hindsight, you could give yourself advice, what would it be:

    1. Don't worry about money.

    2. Spend less time on video games.

    3. Learn a language while you're still young.

The colon can be a question mark instead. Both ways are correct, though I find that the question mark reads a bit more naturally. You can also write the list out in sentence form like so:

If, with hindsight, you could give yourself advice, what would it be: "Don't worry about money", "Spend less time on video games", or "Learn a language while still young"?

Grammatically-speaking, you could have punctuation inside the quotation marks, but that looks messy in a single-line list format due to the commas. It's easier to read and no less grammatically correct to drop the punctuation at the ends of the sentences in quotations (unless they're questions). You do need the question mark at the end as the entire sentence is asking a question.

The list format is by far the most common though due to how much easier it is to see all the options at a glance.
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Wed Dec 26, 2012 5:41 pm
Demeter says...



I think, in this case, an excellent idea is avoid the problem and rephrase the list, as Kyllorac has demonstrated above!

However, in response to your original question, since the question mark isn't a part of the advice, you should put it outside the quotation marks.
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