I knew there was a reason I re-upped…
I’m editing an article and would love some feedback on a particular part of a sentence if anyone has time.
**…the countless “thank-yous” I received will carry me through… **
I’m torn on the use of the quotation marks around thank-yous. Any input (and a reference source) would be appreciated.
I think it’s okay. Probably.
Why are you inclined to use them?
I would consider using a better noun for thank-yous anyway, like:
thank-you notes
thank-you cards
etc.
Thanks, Carol, although I’m not sure it answered my concerns, which I didn’t spell out clearly, so now I will!
Possible alternatives:
*the countless thank-yous I received will carry me through (using the hyphen changes it to a noun)
*the countless thank-you’s I received will carry me through (only found one reference that said to use the apostrophe here)
*the countless "thank you"s I received will carry me through
I’m not sure the quotation marks are necessary at all and simply slow down the reading.
But if they are going to be used to indicate she is quoting the words “thank you” that she heard many times, it seems that "thank you"s would be more appropriate. People don’t say “thank yous”, they say “thank you” so it doesn’t seem to be appropriate in this context to leave the ‘s’ within the quote.
The full sentence:
Being a part of this event was an honor, and the countless “thank-yous” I received will carry me through many a thankless shift in the emergency department.
She is specifically referring to verbal words of thanks. (And yes, I could change it to “countless words of thanks” I suppose, but I don’t think the sentence reads poorly as is, except that those quotation marks bother me!)
It’s really a style issue, which means do whatever you want, as long as it’s consistent.
For reference, the OED has:
Looks like quotes were common in the final example, but since that’s over a hundred years old, you could certainly drop the quotes if you want.
This one: the countless thank-yous I received will carry me through (using the hyphen changes it to a noun)
I find it perfectably understable and perfectly correct. The quotation marks are distracting and raise the possibility that the words inside them are being used facetiously.
What’s wrong with “the countless thanks I received will carry me through”? No hyphens, no quotation marks, no fuss, no muss.
Yes, Gary, that was exactly how I felt. I found those quotes distracting and that final ‘s’ didn’t seem to belong inside the quotes. I think I’ll just leave out the quotes and be done with it!
commasense, that’s a good potential alternative. The only issue I have is that the use of the full ‘thank-you’ ties in with the opening paragraph and, in context, part of the intent of the sentence was to emphasize the particular words. If this was a normal article by one of the reporters I wouldn’t hesitate to make the change as needed, but this came from a reader- her first submission- and was a very well-written, personal account of an experience and I want to be respectful of her tone and intent and not make changes that would alter those.
Thank you for the input!
I don’t see why you need both the hyphen and the quoation marks. I think one or the other would look better.
And since OED was mentioned, but I suspect from your location you might be editing an article for a US publication, American Heritage Dictionary uses the hyphen alone:
thank-you
NOUN: An expression of gratitude: “said their thank-yous and departed.”
You could use ‘gratitude’ instead of “thank-yous,” though you’d have to change ‘countless.’
Okay, in that case, I think “thank yous” (in quotes, no hyphen) would be best. The quotes reflect the fact that those two words are actual quotations, and there’s no need for the hyphen because the words are functioning as a noun, not as an adjectival phrase modifying a noun. Thank yous without quotes would also be acceptable, although slightly less so, IMHO.
However, the following are (IMHO) absolutely wrong, with or without hypen: "thank you"s (S outside the quotes) and thank you’s (plural formed with apostrophe, within or without quotes).
Does your publication use AP style, Salem? The AP Stylebook discourages the use of extraneous quote marks. The only entries I think it could fall under are unfamiliar terms and ironical use, and thank-you is neither unfamiliar or ironical in this case.
I say no quotes, and that thanks is preferable.
commasense, if Salem’s publication uses AP style, then the word in question is hyphenated, because Merriam-Webster says so. Without the hyphen, it is only used in the phrase “thank you.”