Punctuation: BE vs AE

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 6

- The ,,double comma''

- Spelling

- Quotations

- Titles

- Time

- Dates

British English

American English

Vs.

Gänsefüßchen = ,,Geese feet'' (inverted commas)

Used in newspapers and printed materials / online

Guillemets = >> << 

(/ˈɡiːmeɪ, French ɡijmɛ/)

Used in books

Two types of German quotation marks: 

Which do you use?

American style uses double quotes (“) for initial quotations, then single quotes (‘) for quotations within the initial quotation.

Example 1: "Oliebollen", said the Queen, "are far tastier than Poffertjes."

Example 2: "Oliebollen," said the Queen, "are far tastier than Poffertjes, and as the King said: 'much better when eaten warm.'"

Quotations

American style often omits the 'U' and x1 'L' in certain words. It also uses Z instead of S in certain words.

Eg: Color, traveled, realize

British style includes the U, the extra L and uses S.

Eg: Colour, travelled, realised

Spelling

British style uses single quotes (‘) for initial quotations, then double quotes (“) for quotations within the initial quotation.

Example 1: 'Oliebollen', said the Queen, 'are far tastier than Poffertjes.'

Example 2: 'Oliebollen,' said the Queen, 'are far tastier than Poffertjes, and as the King said, "much better when eaten warm."'

Quotations

Mr., Mrs., Ms., and Dr. all take periods in American English.

In British English,
the periods are omitted (Dr Smith).

Titles

American usage dictates a colon (e.g., 10:30)

Time

British usage dictates a period between the hours and minutes (e.g., 10.30)

American English writes dates in MM/DD/YY format.

10/1/2019 means October 1, 2019.

British English writes dates in DD/MM/YY format.

10/1/2019 means January 10, 2019.

Dates

Re-write the sentence, first with BE and then AE punctuation: I asked Karen for help, said Jen, but she shook her head and said, you don't deserve it.

Re-write the sentence, first with BE and then AE punctuation: On the first of December 2005, Dr Ross traveled to Italy. His plane left at two thirty in the afternoon.

Which do you use? Has your answer changed?