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ˋˋPeriod“ vs.´´full stop“
Since the ´´Internet´´I had already gotten used to people saying ´´period´´ when they want to emphasize that they have just finished their message. But now I (finally) saw someone use ´´full stop“ in that situation. That‘s the one I would have always expected. Period always rather made me think of mathematics or medicine, and I had never heard of it in any English class.
Could someone please elaborate on the usages?
Sep 25, 2018 2:52 PM
Answers · 5
Hi Olle,
The simple answer is that 'period' is American English and 'full stop' is British English!
Hope that helps
Steve
September 25, 2018
They mean exactly the same thing. As is often the case, there isn't a perfectly sharp distinction between US and British English. In the US, "period" is the usual term. "Full stop" is understood.
If a US speaker happens to use "full stop," it doesn't mean anything in particular.
I notice that the American Heritage Dictionary's definition of "period" is "A punctuation mark ( . ) indicating a full stop..."
As a side note, over some period of time, perhaps 1900 to 1960, telegrams were printed entirely in uppercase without punctuation, and the end of a sentence was indicated by the word "STOP." Since the price of a telegram was billed by the word, it let to a style of ungrammatical, abbreviated English called "telegraphic" English. An example, from a novel:
"ARTHUR STOP COME AT ONCE STOP AM IN TERRIBLE TROUBLE STOP DO NOT PHONE STOP AUNT MATILDA"
September 26, 2018
What if an American uses ´full-stop‘?
September 25, 2018
