Punctuation within quotation marks

pontios

pontios

Well-known member
I just need some guidance, please.
How would you punctuate the following quote?

I've placed the quotation marks around the whole thing and roughly punctuated it (στα κουτουρού)- but please punctuate it whichever way you deem necessary.

"Why did you let us think that you were broke all this time ; didn't
you trust us ? I'm disappointed in you for lying to us, but
I'm also grateful for your help."

Context - probably not important here, but anyway ..
A friend (A) pretended that he was broke to his two friends and travelling companions of 20 days (B and C - who were genuinely skint) - and just as the 2 friends (B and C) fretted about being stuck in Naples (and how they were going to get to Piraeus) . - friend A ("the great pretender") finally pulled out a wad of notes and told them their worries were over.
The quote is friend B's reaction to A's surprising announcement and revelation.
 
nickel

nickel

Administrator
Staff member
pontios said:
"Why did you let us think that you were broke all this time ; didn't
you trust us ? I'm disappointed in you for lying to us, but
I'm also grateful for your help."
Click to expand...
Changes I would make:

  1. I'd remove Enters. Text should be allowed to flow freely within the borders of a text frame.
  2. I'd remove the space before punctuation marks. Spaces should follow punctuation marks. The French add spaces before quotation marks, commas, etc., but, if you do that in any uncontrolled environment such as a forum, you run the risk of having lines begin with commas or question marks. Ugly!
  3. I'd put a question mark in place of the first semi-colon.
  4. I'd end up with this:
    “Why did you let us think that you were broke all this time? Didn't you trust us? I'm disappointed in you for lying to us, even though I'm grateful for your help.”
 
pontios

pontios

Well-known member
Thank you, nickel,
You've explained it beautifully. I can use this as a reference now.

Re: borders/framing -
The quote was copied from my email - it hasn't been word processed or reworked (and I like your ending, thanks !).
My translation was written directly in e-mail, and I sent page by page, by email, to the author (I just wanted to get through it quickly).
The only part that I've (crudely) word processed was the attachment that I sent to you (the one you kindly helped me with).

I really appreciate it!

..Chris
 
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