Would
.?',
in the following sentence be correct?
A man asked 'how many are red, how many are green, etc.?', so I tried to find out.
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I've found a style guide sanctioning the dropping of full stops from eg etc, and I follow the recommendation there so as to avoid one problem. It is usually considered allowable to drop stops other than the 'principal' one (here the question mark is necessary), letting one do 'dual service'. US writers seem to eschew 'double punctuation', but again, some style guides say 'allowable for clarification in British English [whatever that is]' so I act accordingly....– Edwin AshworthCommented Jul 5, 2016 at 18:34
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Here, I'd use: << A man asked 'How many are red, how many are green, etc?' so I tried to find out. >> if I had to (!?), but prefer << A man asked: 'How many are red, how many are green, etc?' So I tried to find out. >>– Edwin AshworthCommented Jul 5, 2016 at 18:34
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1The is nothing wrong with your etc.?' example since in that case you are using the dot to mark an abbreviation, not the end of a sentence. You could in other suitable circumstances use such a dot followed by a comma.– HenryCommented Jul 5, 2016 at 18:37
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Thanks, I actually changed the sentence for brevity, the original sentence which sparked my question was much longer on either side of the comma, making the comma's use seem more necessary.– JoeCommented Jul 5, 2016 at 18:53
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1 Answer
According to the Chicago Manual of Style (16th ed.) the period should not be omitted. In the section on multiple punctuation marks it says, "When an expression (such as an abbreviation) that takes a period ends a sentence, no additional period follows. Of course, when any other mark of punctuation is needed immediately after the period, both the period and the additional mark appear."