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Diamond
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Picture of kittypal
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When you use parenthesis in a sentence do you put the period, question mark, or exclamation inside of them or outside?
 
Posts: 5053 | Location: Utopia | Registered: 06-04-02Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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Periods and commas always go inside.

A question mark will go inside if the quote is a question: Did she ask, "What time is it?"

A question mark will go outside if the sentence is a question and quotation is a statement: Did he say "I'll be darned"?

If an exclamation is part of a quote the exclamation point goes inside: He cried "Help!"

If the sentence itself is an exclamation but the quote is not, the exclamation point goes outside: Didn't you here me say "No"!

Colons and semicolons always go outside quotation marks.
 
Posts: 1540 | Location: Minneapolis | Registered: 06-08-02Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Diamond
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I agree totaly with Minnesota,I'd like to add that a question mark will also be inside if it express a doubt.ex:(she really won the loto??)
 
Posts: 6472 | Location: u.s.a, south Florida | Registered: 06-03-02Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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Wasn't the question about parenthesis rather than quotation marks ?
 
Posts: 17656 | Location: Lincoln Place, Granite City, IL, USA | Registered: 06-03-02Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Diamond
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It was about both parentheses and question marks
 
Posts: 6472 | Location: u.s.a, south Florida | Registered: 06-03-02Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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Side note on spelling: "Parenthesis" is singular, "parentheses" is plural.
 
Posts: 2103 | Location: U.S. | Registered: 06-03-02Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Diamond Enthusiast

Picture of Lydia
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I agree with most of what you wrote, but have a question concerning the "periods and commas always go inside". (Note - I just put it outside of the "'s.)

I thought that the period went outside if the sentence came to an end after the "s and only inside if what was inside the "'s is a sentence unto itself. No???
 
Posts: 4523 | Location: ~somewhere else~ | Registered: 06-03-02Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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Lydia

The period rule is very clear: there is never, ever a time when a period is put outside a quotation mark.



Doriangreyed

Your observation is valid about the question being in reference to parentheses,(). At first that was my thought, but then I saw the " " marks following "Topic: Parenthesis." Knowing that some people mistakenly call quotation marks "parentheses," and that there is seldom much confusion in punctuating parentheses, I decided the question probably referred to quotation marks and not parentheses.
 
Posts: 1540 | Location: Minneapolis | Registered: 06-08-02Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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Minnesota - I didn't even notice that. It does pay to look around, doesn't it.
Prof. - Thanks. I forgot.
 
Posts: 17656 | Location: Lincoln Place, Granite City, IL, USA | Registered: 06-03-02Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Diamond
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My mistake, I did mean quotation marks, wasn't paying attention. Thank you for the helpful info, I have forgotten so many rules from school. razz
 
Posts: 5053 | Location: Utopia | Registered: 06-04-02Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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