During the past several weeks, I have written several posts about when to use italics, when to use quotation marks, and how to use other punctuation with quotation marks. Here is a little quiz on the information in those posts:
Fix the following sentences by putting in quotation marks and italics, or adding punctuation in the correct places around quotation marks. Some of the sentences may be correct as is:
1. Please look up the definition of the word defenestrate.
2. I would like my steak served medium rare and a la carte.
3. I flew on to Miami on a Boeing 757.
4. I was excited to see the movie Star Wars for the tenth time!
5. I am hooked on the television show The Wagner Family, and my favorite episode is What Will Happen Next?
6. Please turn to Chapter 2, The Beginning of World War I.
7. I just received my tickets for the play Hamilton.
8. I hired her because of her can-do attitude.
9. She said that she thought it might rain this afternoon.
10. Did you read the article in The New York Times called Children and Technology?
11. Please just answer yes or no.
12. I am running late she said, and I will probably miss the beginning of the movie.
13. The box was marked fragile, so I carefully took it to the closet and put it in the back.
14. My kids constantly ask, Are we there yet? when we take a long trip in the car.
15. She kept saying, You are thinner than I am; it drove me crazy!
Scroll for the answers…..
Down
Down
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Here!
1. Please look up the definition of the word defenestrate. (Italics for a word used as itself in a sentence.)
2. I would like my steak served medium rare and a la carte. (Correct as is. A la carte is common enough not to need italics – except when it is used as itself in a sentence, like this answer!)
3. I flew on to Miami on a Boeing 757. (Correct as is. Boeing is not italicized. It is the brand name, not a specific name given to a plane, like Spirit of St. Louis.)
4. I was excited to see the movie Star Wars for the tenth time! (Titles of movies are italicized.)
5. I am hooked on the television show The Wagner Family, and my favorite episode is “What Will Happen Next?” (Television shows are in italics. Episodes are quoted, and here the question mark is inside the quotes because the quotation mark goes only with the title.)
6. Please turn to Chapter 2, “The Beginning of World War I.” (Names of chapters are in quotation marks. The period always goes inside the quotation marks in American English, no matter what.)
7. I just received my tickets for the play Hamilton. (Title of plays are in italics.)
8. I hired her because of her “can-do” attitude. (Can do has an unusual use in the sentence.)
9. She said that she thought it might rain this afternoon. (Correct as it is. Even though the word said is there, it is an indirect quote, not a direct quote of what she actually said.)
10. Did you read the article in The New York Times called “Children and Technology”? (Newspaper names are in italics, and articles are in quotation marks. The question mark is outside the quotes because the question is the entire sentence.)
11. Please just answer yes or no. (In this usage, yes and no do not need to be quoted. Here is a different example: She replied, “yes.” Here you need quotes.)
12. “I am running late,” she said, “and I will probably miss the beginning of the movie.” (Quotes around the exact words she said. Commas after late, and said. Commas and periods always go inside the quotation marks.)
13. The box was marked “fragile,” so I carefully took it to the closet and put it in the back. (Quotation marks are used for words that follow labeled or marked. Comma inside the quotes.)
14. My kids constantly ask, “Are we there yet?” when we take a long trip in the car. (Quotation marks around the direct quote. Question mark inside quotes because the question is the quoted portion of the sentence only.)
15. She kept saying, “You are thinner than I am”; it drove me crazy! (Quotation marks around the exact words she said. Semicolon always goes outside the quotes.)
Looking for grammar goofs!
I am collecting grammar goofs for a future post. If you see something in a newspaper, etc., or you hear something (most likely on the news) that is not correct, please send it to me. You can send me the source, but I will not be posting those. You can e-mail it to me at the website e-mail (info@bigwords101.com) or you can send it as a comment if that is easier. They will not be posted as comments though. Thanks!
Got numbers 1, 2, 4, and 7 wrong (and half of number 5). Didn’t know about the rule applied in Sentence 1, nor that play and film names should be italicized. Thanks for that. Shouldn’t “can-do” be hyphenated in Sentence 8, though (as well as within quotation marks)? And I assume you meant to write “Some of the sentences may be correct as IS:”.
I thought about hyphenating can-do, and I agree with you. It is within quotation marks in the corrections. Thanks for pointing out the typo. Fixed.
Wonder whether you’d hyphenate, as in “a can-do attitude”.
Yes, I would. And I fixed it. Because it was in quotes, I thought it could be done without a hyphen because it was clear; however, I did change it. Thanks!
Often (name of another person) and I used as an indirect object. I read an ebook that used this constantly. Drove me crazy. I’ll try to find an example.
You mean – “He gave Tony and I a book” ???