Grammar Questions

[Peter Ahlstrom]

You're almost right, Shaggy, according to what I said before, except the ". . ." needs spaces on both sides. When you have four dots like you have at the end there, the first one doesn't have a space before it, but when there are three dots there is always a space before and after. (If there are spaces in the middle like there are supposed to be.)

[The Jade Knight]

Right–thanks, Ook.

But wouldn't that not really be correct (@ Jade) 'cause the word that was left out was its own word, and not connected to 'Swear' (where you're putting the apostrophe)?

Like I said, this is an idiosyncratic thing I do.  Not standard usage.  I like it, though.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

I would just say it's wrong. Apostrophes work on the word level, not the sentence level. If they're on the sentence level they become single quote marks and look unbalanced.

You can use wrong punctuation idiosyncratically all you want, of course, but if you actually want to submit something professionally, don't.

[Shaggy]

Right–thanks, Ook.

Actually, Jade, I was just reading a book where they used that, so, I guess I was mistaken.

[The Jade Knight]

Heheh.  Have at you, Ook!

[Peter Ahlstrom]

I do sometimes see it when part of a set phrase has been left out, such as " 'Course" for "Of course," but when it's not a set phrase it's just wrong, and if you saw it in a book, some editor was being sloppy.

[Shaggy]

The way I saw it was in "'Night," the apostrophe being in place of 'Good.' (Set phrase?)

[The Jade Knight]

I do sometimes see it when part of a set phrase has been left out, such as " 'Course" for "Of course," but when it's not a set phrase it's just wrong, and if you saw it in a book, some editor was being sloppy.

I generally only do it in that context.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Yes, Shaggy, that's a good example of a set phrase where the use is defensible or even preferred.

(Everyone please remember that when you use curly apostrophes, they always curl the same way as they do in the middle of a word, even if they're at the beginning of a word. I think that typographically there's little that looks worse than an apostrophe facing the wrong direction.)

If you're leaving off a personal pronoun, though, that's not a set phrase in the same sense.