# Grammar-Thought Quotation Marks, etc.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-thought-quotation-marks-etc/206184>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 8, 2003, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-thought-quotation-marks-etc/206184 "2003-10-08T00:03:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![daniel801](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@daniel801](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/daniel801)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-thought-quotation-marks-etc/206184/1 "2003-10-08T00:03:18Z")

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You guys are geniuses. Help me to present the following sentence free of grammatical errors:

I thought, “What’s a good way to piss off people that will not make me the real target of their displeasure nor arouse suspicion of intentionality?”

TIA.

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-thought-quotation-marks-etc/206184/2 "2003-10-08T00:22:54Z")

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There nothing wrong the the grammar (though the writing is awkward and wordy – “around suspicion of intentionality”?)

Better:

I thought, “What a good way to piss of people so that I don’t get blamed?”

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**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-thought-quotation-marks-etc/206184/3 "2003-10-08T00:28:04Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by daniel801 \*  
> **I thought, “What’s a good way to piss off people that will not make me the real target of their displeasure nor arouse suspicion of intentionality?”**

IMO, its main crime is awkwardness, not grammatical errors per se. “Real” is redundant and “suspicion of intentionality” is both verbose and unclear.

I would recast as follows:

I thought, “How can I piss people off without arousing suspicion or becoming a target of their displeasure?”

Damn, **RealityChuck** beat me to it!

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**Author:** ![dinoboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/65b543/32.png) [@dinoboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dinoboy)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-thought-quotation-marks-etc/206184/4 "2003-10-08T00:43:02Z")

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I thought, “what is a good way to piss people off **which** will **niether** make me the real target of their displeasure nor arouse suspicion of **intent**?”  
but it is a bit verbose, maybe something more like:

I thought, “what would be an **anonymous** way to piss off people?” – would be fine too.

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**Author:** ![bojon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@bojon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bojon)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-thought-quotation-marks-etc/206184/5 "2003-10-08T00:44:38Z")

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my way would be to have an attorney send them a letter.

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**Author:** ![GregE625](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b77776/32.png) [@GregE625](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GregE625)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-thought-quotation-marks-etc/206184/6 "2003-10-08T01:01:06Z")

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I thought the grammer (and puncuation–doesn’t the thread title indicate this is about use of quotation marks?) was correct.

How about this one:

Who shouted, “Look out!” or is it:

Who shouted, “Look out!”? or is it:

Who shouted, “Look out?”

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**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-thought-quotation-marks-etc/206184/7 "2003-10-08T01:07:08Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by GregE625 \*  
> \*\*I thought the grammer (and puncuation–doesn’t the thread title indicate this is about use of quotation marks?) was correct.
> 
> How about this one:
> 
> Who shouted, “Look out!” or is it:
> 
> Who shouted, “Look out!”? or is it:
> 
> Who shouted, “Look out?” \*\*

The second.