Smart and dumb apostrophes
When correcting a text for work today, I noticed that there were two different types of quotes and apostrophes used. Upon research, I learned that there are two different types: Smart quotes/apostrophes, which are curled (that’s), and dumb ones, which are straight (that's). The smart ones are hard to type; however, a couple of websites claimed that dumb quotes shouldn't be used in professional writing. I experimented with a few correction tools (entering 'thats' and see the correction) and found that dumb apostrophes were the default for all of them. Also, the display of smart quotes was weird on some programs (similar to this: ` ).
So my questions are: Does anyone besides typographists care? Which one are you using? Did you know about this?See: http://smartquotesforsmartpeople.com/Example:
"Don't be dumb"
“You’re smart!”
Pesquise entre vários professores de Inglês...
Respostas · 7
1
Firstly you are talking about different things, I think.
From English classes long, long ago.
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Apostrophes do not indicate quotations in proper English.
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"Double quotes" that look like 66 and 99 are the correct option for quotations. They would normally be correctly included by any respectable word processor from your prompt by typing the double quote character er, """ to quote it :).
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Apostrophes are a single dash, that appears on the keyboard. Basically unrelated to quotations.
Using apostrophes as "single quotes" I suspect has no place in formal language. I may be wrong or just old. :)
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1
This is just a typography thing. And a font issue. If you are not involved in publishing a book, and typesetting, don't worry.
0
That's really weird. I have never heard of such a thing. I always thought that it was dependent on the font.
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