Should there be a comma after the ellipses (. . . ,")?

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
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"If we’re able to get the wiring right, I could . . .” my dad muttered, trailing off.

Should there be a comma after the ellipses (. . . ,")?

Thanks.

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I’d say yes:

“If we can get the wiring right, I could …,” my father muttered, trailing off.

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3

I think it is like the following; so, a comma is required.
John said, “I am sorry.”
“I am sorry.”, John said.

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“I am sorry.”, John said.

Is the punctuation between “sorry” and “John” correct?

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No,

Two punctuation marks are unacceptable, in this case a full stop and a comma, therefore it should be:

  • ‘I’m sorry,’ John said. So, the comma should be behind the last quotation mark or between the quotation marks

What’s equally unacceptable is the fact that inversion or reversal of word order is not necessary to make what I’ve stated above crystal clear.

John said, ‘I am sorry.’ is correct, but Kohyoongliat’s version is too, if you just use one punctuation mark and put it after the last quotation mark or between the quotation marks. Moreover, - John said, ‘I’m sorry.’ - may be correct, but it’s not at all an answer to your question.

My question, to whoever the shoe fits: ‘Is academic accuracy a means of trying to make things work as and whenever it suits academics?’ Well, I hope I’ll get a satisfactory answer.

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6

I’d go with the original text.

There doesn’t seem to be any consistent rule about this.
One source, discussed the situation where the sentence ends with the quotation mark, such as:
“I don’t think . . .”
They suggested that the ellipsis was sufficient to get the point across and an additional final period was not necessary to end the sentence.
The period in this sentence, and the proposed comma in our original sentence, don’t seem to add anything but ink.

Another thing that the original text does that I like is that for this case of denoting speech trailing off, they placed spaces between the dots of the ellipsis to stretch it out. I think it visually supports the idea of trailing off.
I, however, never place spaces within eclipses that denote omissions. Others do, though.

YMMV

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I think you and I have commented on a different topic. You see, there’s two questions. You have the main question and there’s a question that was posted 11 months ago. Anglophile’s answer is above the question, mine is under it. Perhaps a technical problem, I don’t know. Would you have a look at it, please? Thanks.

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@Masme ,
I didn’t say anything about the second question as I thought you had addressed it.
“I am sorry,” John said. AmE, or
“I am sorry”, John said. BrE. (as I understand it.)
I don’t see the need for a period within the quotes.

Although I’m an AmE speaker, I like the BrE version better since I feel it is more logical, but I don’t think either one would cause confusion in a reader.

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Hi, Arinker,

Ofcourse, but do I have this wrong, or have I only read American books? Is it also possible that some British authors use AmE? Perhaps correctors of American publishing houses find it necessary, for some inexplicable reason, to make that alteration. I agree that neither use will confuse the reader.

I have found this link:
British versus American style | The Punctuation Guide

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I saw the same citation that you listed.
But, I just looked at some old books - Austen, Wilde, Dodgeson, Arthur Conan Doyle, RLS - and they all had the comma within the quotation marks.
Perhaps @Anglophile can clear this up for us.

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Is that wise? @Arinker

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  1. In fact, we need to introduce a new practice that can be followed for quoting.
  2. Crowding of punctuations is not advisable but two punctuations are very common.
  3. Each statement written has to close with a punctuation mark.
  4. A quoted sentence includes a punctuation within it. (period, exclamation, question etc.)
  5. So, we have sentences like “I am sorry.” John said.
  6. Now the question of comma may come up.
  7. On a re-thinking, I find that the quoting without a comma is acceptable and that it does not pose any semantic problems.
  • So, "If we’re able to get the wiring right, I could . . .” my dad muttered, trailing off. should be acceptable.
    So is: “I am sorry.” John said.

However, John said, “I am sorry.” or even John said “I am sorry.” does not make the sentence incomprehensible!

Let’s consider doing away with the comma after the quote! :innocent: :confounded: :thinking:

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Very, very clever, Lawrence. :sweat_smile:

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