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Legion · Daedalian Member

How do I punctuate a sentece where i refer to a word, rather than use it in it's proper sense.

For example...

Fishes is not a word.

Quailman · His Postmajesty

Joe fishes in saltwater, but John fishes in fresh water.

I used a comma and a period, but I suppose you could have omitted the 'but' and used two periods.

Zag · Tired of his old title

I don't understand the question that Quailman is answering, but I don't think it is the one that was asked. However, he did provide a correct example, so maybe that was his intent. You enclose the word in single quotes, unless that becomes awkward because of interfering apostrophes, in which case you use double quotes. (I don't think it would be a problem to use double quotes in all cases, but I'm not sure.)

i.e. You can use the word 'can' to indicate either a metal container or the ability to do something. However, you can't use the word "can't" to indicate any sort of container.

Since you were asking about grammar, I'll throw in some spelling advice: The word "it's" is a contraction of 'it is.' When you want to use the possessive, as in "its proper sense," there is no apostrophe. You should think of the possessive 'its' as being equivalent to 'his' or 'hers' which would never have an apostrophe.

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This reminds me of a puzzle I heard n the NPR show Car Talk. The hosts, Bob and Ray Magliozzi, described their reaction on seeing the new sign for their garage. The sign read, predictably, "Bob and Ray Magliozzi's Garage." Bob looked at the sign and said a properly constructed sentence that included a single word repeated five times in a row. What was the sentence?

Answer (spoilered): "The spaces between 'Bob' and 'and' and 'and' and 'Ray' are not the same size!"

Legion* · Guest

Thanks, actually i threw in the "it's" precisely becuase responding to it would be a perfect example of the case to which I was referring.

Legion* · Guest

The particualr phrase I was looking at was...

Evidence is not the plural of anecdote

LordKinbote · Daedalian Member

esme · ^^^^-- is female! Get the pronouns right

I recommend to go here: http://ell.stackexchange.com/
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3iff · very unbifflike

Other than your example being wrong, what "I" would do is highlight the word in some manner...

"Fishez" is not a word.
'Fishez' is not a word.
Fishez is not a word.

Something like that...I'm probably wrong but that wouldn't stop me from doing it that way.

Death Mage · Raving Lunatic

Yea, something to highlight the word. I believe single quotes are used in such a case, but I'm probably wrong. So something like:

Fishes is not a 'word.'
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Buzzsaw · Newbie Guidance Counselor

"Fishes is not a word"? So the man who dord while he fishes actually dord while he fish? Confused

Amb · Amb the Hitched.

I'd use italics for that situation.