h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Progressive something, anyway.

Actually, I see that you did finally accept the word of the OED over your teachers, so not as depressing as at first glance.
-Xanthia

Unc - I'd been looking for help with the correct use of the apostrophe in written speech and enjoyed your entry enormously.

However, ultimately, it left my question unanswered. I looked at five or six novels, printed over a period of about 100 years, only to discover that use of single or double inverted commas for speech was split roughly 50/50. Are the two modes now interchangeable?

I agree with your view, however, that DOUBLE commas should be used. How else could you write: "The wickets to fall that morning were all Jaques Kallis'". NB I know that's a clumsy sentence - I'm merely using it to illustrate the point!

Nick

PS Publishers have a 'House Style' which governs how their books appear. I wonder if, nowadays, it's just down to that?

Sorry - typo.

"The wickets to fall that morning were all Jaques Kallis'."

Actually, maybe the full stop answers the question. Perhaps it COULD be written either way after all.

Nick

i think it probably can be written either way; language is a fluid thing, and there is no 'academie anglaise' to prescribe what we do...

Post 103 looks fine to me!

If the album was by the family called 'Waits', the correct punctuation would be:

The Waitses' album, 'Small Change'

The 'es' on the end of Waits makes the surname plural (referring to the whole family) and the apostrophe signifies possession. Some people refuse to believe this is correct, because "it doesn't look right".

Perhaps that's because very few people get it right, and be honest, we are all influenced by what we see in newspapers and books, and we assume them to be correct. It's all logical, just think it through.