Grammatically correct

[gazzawazza]

Going back to my junior school days, I remember being taught certain rules as to punctuation marks. Unfortunately due to the mists of time my memory has become blurred. One of these was that when using quotes in a sentence, any marks at the end of the sentence should be inside the quotes. Is my memory serving me correctly? And if so, does this still apply now rules of written grammar seem to be more relaxed?

[Quizmonster]

In British - as opposed to American - English usage, the punctuation comes inside the quotation marks only if it belongs to the words of the quotation. For example, we would say: When did President Kennedy say "Ich bin ein Berliner"? The question mark is outside the speech marks because the question is mine, not President Kennedy's. As I understand this, Americans would put the question mark inside, which to me is nonsensical...unless his mother had just whispered to him: "You're not Boston Irish, Jack. Your dad was a German and I had you in Berlin." Now that might have produced the startled response that needed a question mark inside!

To answer your question, therefore, put within quotes only that which belongs there.

[gazzawazza]

Thanks V much Quizmonster, so quick and so simple to understand. Are you a teacher?!!

[Quizmonster]

I was, Gazza. I taught English for decades but I'm retired now. Glad to have helped.

[sydmayne]

It is nice to see that there is at least one other person in these islands who understands the English language.I was a newspaper linotype operator for 35 years before changing to journalism. I try to keep standards up, but I'm fighting a losing battle.