{"id":5675,"date":"2016-05-09T14:18:50","date_gmt":"2016-05-09T22:18:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.constant-content.com\/blog\/?p=5675"},"modified":"2018-04-24T08:49:06","modified_gmt":"2018-04-24T15:49:06","slug":"4-key-differences-between-american-and-british-punctuation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.constant-content.com\/content-writing-service\/2016\/05\/4-key-differences-between-american-and-british-punctuation\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Key Differences Between American and British Punctuation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.constant-content.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/4-key-differences-between-american-and-british-punctuation\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5676\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-5676\" src=\"https:\/\/cc-west-blog-assets.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2016\/05\/1200x700.jpg\" alt=\"American\/Union Flag - 4 Key Differences Between American and British Punctuation\" width=\"673\" height=\"393\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cc-west-blog-assets.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2016\/05\/1200x700.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/cc-west-blog-assets.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2016\/05\/1200x700-300x175.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cc-west-blog-assets.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2016\/05\/1200x700-768x448.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cc-west-blog-assets.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2016\/05\/1200x700-1024x597.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cc-west-blog-assets.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2016\/05\/1200x700-50x29.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 673px) 100vw, 673px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Ever wonder if the writing convention you use is correct? Well, it all depends what audience you\u2019re writing for. For example, the structural differences between writing for a British audience and writing for an American one can be hard to keep straight. Even the way the two systems use basic punctuation can be slightly different. Here are some common ways that the two differ. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Dates<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When writing a date, Americans put month, day and year in that order. So, December 25, 2015 would be 12\/25\/2015. The British (and most of the rest of the world&#8217;s) practice is to list the day, month, then year. So, the same date would be 25\/12\/2015.<\/p>\n<p>To avoid confusion, writing out the month is probably your best tactic.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Titles<br \/>\n<\/strong>In American English, Mr., Ms., and Mrs. all have periods. In British, however, no periods are used.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Time<br \/>\n<\/strong>When denoting time, the British system uses periods\u2014noon would be 12.00\u2014while the American system uses colons (12:00).<\/p>\n<p><strong>4. Quotes<br \/>\n<\/strong>This is a fun one! British style uses single quotation marks for initial quotations, and then double quotes when there is a quotation inside the quotation. The British also put punctuation that is not part of the quotation outside the quotation marks. Americans do the opposite on both counts. For example:<\/p>\n<p><em>British style: &#8216;I love lyrics that tell stories&#8217;, said the songwriter, &#8216;like in Marc Cohn&#8217;s song where he says that he \u201cput on his blue suede shoes and boarded the plane.\u201d&#8217;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>American style: \u201cI love lyrics that tell stories,\u201d said the songwriter, \u201clike in Marc Cohn&#8217;s song where he says that he &#8216;put on his blue suede shoes and boarded the plane.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t worry, though: in most other matters of style, the Americans and British tend to agree. Luckily, the above style choices are exceptions rather than the rule.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.constant-content.com\/content-writing-service\/2017\/10\/guide-to-grammar-punctuation-and-structure\/?utm_source=Blog&amp;utm_medium=Body%20CTA&amp;utm_campaign=Grammar%20Guide\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-16803\" src=\"https:\/\/cc-west-blog-assets.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2018\/03\/grammar-guide.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"233\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cc-west-blog-assets.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2018\/03\/grammar-guide.png 700w, https:\/\/cc-west-blog-assets.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2018\/03\/grammar-guide-300x100.png 300w, https:\/\/cc-west-blog-assets.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2018\/03\/grammar-guide-50x17.png 50w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ever wonder if the writing convention you use is correct? Well, it all depends what audience you\u2019re writing for. For example, the structural differences between writing for a British audience and writing for an American one can be hard to keep straight. Even the way the two systems use basic&#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.constant-content.com\/content-writing-service\/2016\/05\/4-key-differences-between-american-and-british-punctuation\/\">Continue Reading <span class=\"icon icon-circle-chevron-right\"><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":5676,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[250],"tags":[14,391],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v15.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>4 Key Differences Between American and British Punctuation - Constant Content<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.constant-content.com\/content-writing-service\/2016\/05\/4-key-differences-between-american-and-british-punctuation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"4 Key Differences Between American and British Punctuation - Constant Content\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ever wonder if the writing convention you use is correct? 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