Talk:2250: OK/okay/ok

He forgot the eternal joke - 0K Come on Randall, you're a person of science141.101.98.40 11:25, 4 January 2020 (UTC) I think this should have been a table. Put spellings down the side (I've seen a lot of "oki" online; maybe "A-OK" too, or some humorous misspelling) and possible permutations of punctuations and capitalisation across the top. I want to know how "o.k.ay." makes you sound :p Angel (talk) 17:41, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

But when you do a single word response, it should just be, "k".

Hax (talk)

"'kay" is better, but I've also seen "'k" -- highlighting, perhaps, that the "o" is supposed to be there even if people are lazy and cut off too much when speaking and writing. 108.162.237.100 06:43, 4 January 2020 (UTC)

If it's not capitalized, I'm definitely imagining the person making clucking noises, even if I know that's not what they meant... Doesn't everybody read "ok" phonetically, as "ock", as in grok?  ;S

ProphetZarquon (talk) 21:42, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

As of this writing, the title text is wrong. I don't know how to edit it. The current explainXKCD version ends with ("oK".). But the xkcd website ends with ("oK.") The location of the period within the quote changes the meaning of this comment. Agrasin (talk) 20:43, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

Good catch! I edited it. I was the one who put it in wrong in the first place as well. I had to insert the quotes manually, when I copy-pasted the title text from the inspect tool of xkcd.com and made this error. Things like the title text or the date can be edited easily when you use the edit button on top of the page instead of the small one at the explanation/transcript. --Lupo (talk) 21:13, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

The period's placement does not necessarily change the meaning of the sentence as its inclusion within the quotation marks does not imply it is part of the quote. Punctuation immediately following a quote goes inside the quotation marks under English grammar. 172.68.174.112 21:23, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

That's a ridiculously bad rule & I'd hope nobody actually does that. Punctuation should only go inside the quotation marks if it's part of the quote. To put punctuation in where it wasn't used muddles whether the punctuation is part of the quote or part of the sentence containing the quote, & offers no possible benefit to comprehension. Bad rule: Don't do that.

ProphetZarquon (talk) 21:37, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

Totally agree although I suspect that english grammar is not supposed to be logical. Also, I think using "oK" would be good idea. -- Hkmaly (talk) 23:03, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

However, it looks much nicer and mimics proper handwriting, where the comma sign is directly underneath the quotation mark. It's considered proper form for American English, whereas Brits put it outside.

162.158.134.142 23:06, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

No, that's only for comma signs. Periods go inside if it's a part of the quote, outside if it isn't, and in both places if you end your sentence with a quote. "This quoted sentence ends with a period.".

162.158.134.142 23:06, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

I have never seen a double period like that anywhere. Ianrbibtitlht (talk) 05:15, 4 January 2020 (UTC)

In SWE (Standard Written (American) English), commas and ending punctuation go inside closing quotation marks (probably originating from typewriters allowing a comma and a period to be put _under_ the closing quotation marks). This rule holds true in American English unless there's a very good reason to leave the punctuation on the outside.

There is a difference between the two following sentences:

* The teacher said, "There is no test!" (the exclamation point belongs to the teacher's statement)

* The teacher said, "There is no test"! (the exclamation point belongs to the narrator's statement)

For cases where there would be ambiguity or a presumed reason to use both external and internal punctuation, writers are advised to rewrite the sentence. There is no grammatical/conventional basis for the following:

* Did the teacher ask, "Who's there?"?

Do note that other than commas, punctuation that is not ending punctuation (commonly dashes, colons, semicolons) or containers (parens, brackets, etc) -- depending on how they're used -- belong outside the quotation marks.

Perhaps the British standard of putting all punctuation on the outside unless it explicitly belongs to the quoted material is more logical, but until some major style manuals in the USA adopt it, it won't be legit in SWE.

Circling back to the original point (ending with '"oK."' vs '"oK".'), that's one of those situations where the sentence should be reworded to avoid the ambiguity on whether the period belongs to the quoted abbreviation or not.108.162.237.100 18:01, 4 January 2020 (UTC)

This is kind of like the LEGO bridge question in What If. 172.69.34.120 18:32, 4 January 2020 (UTC)

I just added the bit about the readers' narrative voices (see Template:https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2250: OK/okay/ok&diff=185524&oldid=185508 for additional), but my parenthsisised justification for the 'quoting' looks a bit clunky even to me. Further changes (or at least partial reversion) are welcome, and in fact invited... Fill your boots! 141.101.99.221 20:15, 5 January 2020 (UTC)