The word is "wreak." Pronounced "reek."

okay!

Either that, or I have groan far to costumed too misplaced periods.

Is a convention, not a rule.

I happen to follow the convention that punctuation goes inside quotes unless the quoted material has its own punctuation or to do so would be confusing.

But that doesn't make the OP wrong.

Punctuation always goes inside quotes. Very few exceptions to the rule...er, convention.

it just about did become a rule, as you say.

I don't know if it made into school texts, though.

Other punctuation marks are inside the quotation marks only if they are part of the original text.

And yes, it is a rule, at least it is in federal Bluebook and the California Style Manual for legal writing.

1. Are you aware that some punctuators are confused about "quotation marks"?

2. He asked, "Should there be a period at the end of this sentence?". <---?

More examples:

Was the defendant heard to say, "I confess"?

The officer shouted, "Halt!"

The general rule is you don't double up concluding punctuation marks, but I imagine an exception is made when the concluding punctuation mark within the quote left alone does not reflect the meaning of the sentence. I tried to find the rule for that and couldn't. I suspect that you would need to add a question mark, even though you already have what would otherwise be a concluding punctuation mark in the form of an exclamation point, since without the question mark the sentence would appear to be a declaratory sentence rather than a question.

I imagine most writers avoid this conundrum by just deleting the exclamation point.

thanks! I didn't know there were still people who knew these things.

The punctuation of this kind is so often wrong and it bugs me.

Did she say, "yes," "no," or "maybe"?

Did she say "yes", "no", or "maybe"?
or it could be

Did she say "yes!", "no!", or "maybe"?

the commas are not required in the last two such as

democrats, republicans and independents. can also be
democrats, republicans, and independents.

either one is correct.

And while I haven't looked in my old copies of Chicago Manual of Style, memory tells me that they favored punctuation outside quotes. Certainly my Macquarie Dictionary and style guide (Australia) prefers it that way (calling it the "English" system).

That makes it a convention and not a rule in my book.

so many people write it incorrectly I'm not sure if the rule is changing.

For example, so many people use "fulsome" as a synonym for "extensive" (rather than in its correct meaning of extravagant, overdone, offensive to good taste) that it's coming into acceptance for its incorrect usage.

"Doubt" went through the same history, having originally meant to suspect, while "misdoubt" meant something closer to the modern "doubt."

these errors.

just before he got mauled by the female grizzly.

...calm Urself.

what really gets my dander up is " off of " .

alerting the spocksman

However, yes, that one drives me nuts, too, along with "reigning in" something or someone, so I'll join you in wearing the pedant's cap.

It's REINING in.

It's time to rein in our militarized police before they wreak more havoc upon innocent civilians.

I'm changing my handle to Proud Pedant. Thanks!

only if there's a hole in the roof.

I don't know why, but they all seem to laboriously type in "reigning."

My mother used to cringe and whimper at "irregardless" and "consensus of opinion," both corporatespeak that my dad picked up and I was convinced he used when he was home solely to drive her around the bend.

in both of the two instances in each case.

But you know you are going to loose this one.

It is great fun in my world. I love getting her excited. Making up is the best. Until next time, have fun and ...

Wreck havoc!!!

Oh, wait, no. I really couldn't 😉

No actually, I have a weird Rain Man ability to spot a typo in a wall of text immediately. That being said, now I'm sure I have made a typo somewhere recently that will contradict this assertion.

It doesn't jive. It begs the question of what begging the question means.

I'll stop now.

oh wait....

I'm sorry, this is just too much fun. Needed some laughs tonight.

I knew you wouldn't let me down!

I'm not sure I knew that And I consider myself well read.

Last edited Thu Sep 4, 2014, 10:56 AM - Edit history (1)

Alot? There's no such word as alot. It took a lot for me to write this.

I guess you were being facetious, right?

But actually there is such a word as allot, it means "to allocate or distribute". i.e. "allotment"

'I see that allot' ~

'I see that allot a lot'

Spelling, schmelling.

When spell checking becomes a bother...nobody cares.

They could barely make mince meat
Low self of steam (Low self-esteem)
Whoa is me (Woe)
He’s in tensive care
Escape goat (Scape)
use to
ad homonym (hominem)
I could care less
Tow the line (toe)
Taken for granite
A mute point (moot)
I did a complete 360 on the issue (180)
Baited breath (bated is correct, but it's common usage)
Chomping at the bit (champing is the correct word, but it's in common usage now)
as a pose to
In one foul swoop (fell)
Butt naked (buck)
Pre-madonna (prima donna)
excedra
expresso
living in squabble (squalor)
supposably
Irregardless (regardless)
Pacifically
vice (-like) grip (Vise)
rediculous
Walla (voilà)
raised to the ground (razed)
Administrate (administer)
Orientate (orient)
try and (try to)
all of the sudden
spaded (spayed)
murial (mural)
Certificated (certify)
Deep seeded (seated)
Could of/ should of/ would of
A new leash on life (lease)
alot
well-healed (heeled)
anyways
down the pipe (down the pike)
libary
beckon call
Febuary
for all intensive purposes
prostrate (prostate)
low and behold (lo)
awhile
contex
conjunctionitis
"up on" instead of "upon"
beyond the pail (pale)
less we forget/unless we forget/least we forget (lest)
per say (se)
alterior motive
Here, here! (hear)
I should have did that
I should've went
Doggy Dog (dog eat dog)
card shark (cardsharp)
blessing in the sky (blessing in disguise)
rod/rot iron (wrought)
rain of terror (reign)
shined instead of shone
Another thing coming (think)
Point of you
tender hooks
contra section
conversate
hisself
noone
fixin' to
exscape
hew and cry
heart-wrenching instead of heart-rending (or worse, heart-rendering)
full proof
"to pay in the rear" instead of "to pay in arrears"
on accident (as a parallel construct to 'on purpose')
world wind (whirlwind)
snuck
hard road to hoe (row to hoe)
cut to the chase (cut through the chafe) *also in common usage now
griss for the mill (grist)
begs the question (misused, not 'wrong')
cut the mustard (muster) *also in common usage
went missing (disappeared)
sneaking suspicion (sinking)
Different than (from)
ice tea (iced)
iced cream (ice)
reign in
epitomy
gotten
flack (flak)
lynchpin
Send in the calvary!
on guard (engargde / en garde)
based off of (based on)
if and when
unless and until
obligated (obliged)
Nauseous (nauseated)
anchors away (aweigh)
meteoric rise (meteors fall)
commander and chief
Free reign
bold faced lie (bald or bare)
almost exactly
drownded
Running the Gauntlet (Gantlet) * common usage these days
Marshall law (martial)
flaunt the law (flout)
between you and I
on the lamb (lam)
in tact
pack (pact)
vocal chords (cords)
the gig is up
nip it in the butt (bud)
one in the same (one and the same)
Statue of limitations (statute)
Extract revenge (exact)
Momento (memento)
Scotch free / scott free (scot)
Hone in on (home)
Feeble position (fetal)
Giving some leadway (leeway)
without further à deux


or confuse these for each other:
Decimate / obliterate
Flounder / founder
Disinterested / uninterested
Loose / lose
dilemma / quandary
to / too
Affect / Effect
weary / wary
marquis / marquee
bawling / balling
piqued / peeked / peaked
eminent / imminent
bearing / baring / barring
flair / flare
exuberant / exorbitant
lay / lie / laid / lain
discrete / discreet
its / it's
there / they're / their
your / you're
oral / verbal
Statute / Statue
threw / though
seen / scene
capitol / capital
goat / goad
good / well
sell / sale
site / sight
faze / phase
tenant / tenet
then / than
jibe / jive
less / fewer
ideal / idea
whenever / when
myriad / many
shined / shone
invite / invitation
moral / morale
weak / reek
brake / break
peddle / pedal
seen / saw
seen / scene
Conscious / conscience
succeed / Secede
imply / infer
drug / dragged
dissent / descent / decent
sleighs / slays
born / borne
compliment / complement
over / more (we've been in business for over 50 years / we've been in business for more than 50 years)
dribble / drivel
diffuse / defuse


redundancy:
Over-exaggerate
Hot Water Heater
PIN number
PC Computer
ATM machine
HIV virus
very unique
the hoi polloi
Fleeting glimpse
extol praise
frozen tundra
tuna fish
with au jus
Free Gift
Added Bonus
"in the process of"
Chai tea ('chai' is Hindi for 'tea')

using an adjective instead of an adverb:
"Drive Safe" instead of "Drive Safely"
"you got here quick"
"Don't take it personal."

penultimate - does NOT mean "the last", but the one before the last.

book of Idiotms.

It's a real conservation peace.

Or any other similarly constructed phrase.

(And everyone from PA, creeping into NE Ohio, is going ?

But very impressive list.

The entries on the list are (predominantly) cases where idioms and common phrases are gotten slightly wrong in ways that render them nonsensical. There's nothing wrong with "needs fixed" if that's the language in the place where you live.

Here's an explanation of the other variation of the construction "needs fixing"

It is grammatically correct in other dialects of English (one in particular). I'm familiar with the rule you reference, but rules of grammar are not universal objective laws that exist outside of actual usage. There's no reason to stigmatize it as "incorrect" in colloquial usage (like on DU).

That has nothing to do with dialect, it has to do with preserving the connection between the meanings of phrases and the meanings of the words that make them up. That strikes me as worthier than indoctrinating everyone in one particular kind of English's (often artificial) rules of grammar. Though there's plenty of complaints about alleged word misuse that I think are similarly misconceived, like the objections to the figurative use of "literally" (which is an old and well-established alternative usage of the word, and a natural evolution from its non-figurative meaning).

... raised by eastern Ohio hill farmers, I have absolutely NO idea what you're talking about. Nope. No idea at all.

(Spouse has always said that if I were Shakespeare, Hamlet would have just said "or not." Our first apartment was #2B. Spouse laughed his ass off about that.)

teaching in an inner city 99.9% black school - so for years I thought it was an ethnic dialect. Until I worked later for a very well educated white boss who also used it and finally figured out the PA connection.

People in Philadelphia generally have "to be" as part of their everyday vocabulary.

So that fits.

You win the internets today.

referring to divas from days past, of course.

Things like "she spent the evening pouring over the documents" drive me insane.

It's "vice" in British English:

Certificate (as a verb) rather than certify, e.g.

It's almost always supposed to be different from.

And is in fact the original form of the phrase:

They still use asterisks rather than spell out "bloody", for instance.

Dictionaries cite usages, correct or otherwise.

From your same source

http://www.chambers.co.uk/search.php?query=ain%27t&title=21st


I'm not of the opinion that innovation is necessarily desirable. I'm well aware that descriptive linguistics is a valid discipline tracking changes in actual language use, but that doesn't make it the final resource for correct language use. There is a reason reputable news and publishing companies have style manuals and don't just tell editors to use dictionaries.

Obviously eating desert is difficult but "The enemy called for our troops to dessert," takes the trifle

never saw that before, hilarious!

OMG What a list. The laughter is killing me.

That's my favorite Freeperism.

Of course, this classic is near and dear to my funny bone:

?w=330

That phrase always reminds me of the old Jerry Clower routine:

The nurse told me to get undressed, and I asked "buck" nekkid?

She looked at me over her glasses and said "is there a difference between naked and buck naked?"

I said "yes ma'am. You can be nekkid and still have your socks on."

...your delightful list item by item. Seeing as I have not yet done that, I don't know if it contains one of the latest egregious grammar offenses - making a possessive out of "I". When I hear things like, "John and I's vacation, I want to scream .

...denier, as in "climate change denier," because I learned it as a term referring to the gauge/fineness of a knit product, most commonly used when referring to the sheerness of hosiery.

i see that one almost as much as the lose/loose confusion.

And then there's "dinning room" for dining room.

ARGGGGHHH.

wreak havoc (with something)
to cause a lot of trouble with something; to ruin or damage something. Your bad attitude will wreak havoc with my project. The rainy weather wreaked havoc with our picnic plans.
See also: havoc, wreak

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/wreak+havoc