Okay, I give up. I can't find an exact replica of this kind of usage of single quote marks. I'm not sure whether to put the comma between the single and double quote, or before it. If I put it before, it seems to make the whole thing look weird. But it looks weird now. Frank finally broke his silence at the dinner table. “Took a little gander on Stinger this mornin’,” he remarked, speaking with his mouth full. Joe held his breath, not sure what to expect next. “I ain’t never felt an easier mouth on a new-broke horse. I hate to admit it, young feller, but you shore know your stuff. Fact is, I’d take my hat off to you right now. If I was a-wearin’ it. Which I ain’t.” Any thoughts on this?
It looks right to me. It's not a single quote, its an apostrophe denoting that a letter has been removed. So, surely it needs to stay where it is, should be followed by the comma, and then quotation marks closed. My punctuation isn't the greatest. If I've got it wrong, I'd love for someone to correct me.
Apostrophe. Of course it is. I think you're right, and I think I'm just starting to see errors everywhere ...errors under the bed, errors in the air I breathe... talk about self doubt... I should just follow my instincts and quit THINKING! Thinking and me don't always work together very well.
The apostrophe goes with the word. No problem there. And with double quotes and phrase-ending punctuation both before and after the closing quote, the one inside the quotes prevails (you don't retain both).
Thanks, both of you. It was just a little blind spot I was having this morning, while doing an edit...
The above responses are correct for the apocope, but for other situations, it's similar to parentheses. This (only as an example) is correct. This (Yes. You see it here.) is correct. In that, "I said to him 'No!'," should he ever ask again (this is correct).
