Which of the following sentences follows the rules of punctuation and capitalization?
A.
“I loved that show,” He said. “It’s my favorite of the year.”
B.
“I loved that show,” he said. “It’s my favorite of the year.”
C.
“I loved that show.” he said. “It’s my favorite of the year.”
D.
“I loved that show,” he said: “it’s my favorite of the year.”
The correct answer and Explanation is :
The correct sentence is:
B. “I loved that show,” he said. “It’s my favorite of the year.”
Explanation
Punctuation and capitalization rules in dialogue are designed to clearly distinguish between spoken words and the surrounding narrative text. Here’s a breakdown of why option B is correct and why the other options are not:
- Dialogue Punctuation and Capitalization:
- When a sentence ends with a quote and continues with a dialogue tag (like “he said”), the dialogue tag is not capitalized. In option B, the sentence “I loved that show,” is correctly followed by the dialogue tag “he said” with a lowercase “he.”
- Comma Usage:
- A comma is used to separate the spoken words from the dialogue tag when the sentence continues. Option B correctly uses a comma before the closing quotation mark in “I loved that show,” and before the dialogue tag “he said.”
- End of Sentence:
- After the dialogue tag, a new sentence should start with a capital letter if the next part is a new sentence. In option B, “It’s my favorite of the year” correctly starts with a capital letter following the period after “he said.”
Here’s why the other options are incorrect:
- Option A: “I loved that show,” He said. “It’s my favorite of the year.”
- The dialogue tag “He said” incorrectly capitalizes “He.” In dialogue, the tag should start with a lowercase letter unless it follows a proper noun or is at the beginning of a sentence.
- Option C: “I loved that show.” he said. “It’s my favorite of the year.”
- The sentence incorrectly uses a period after “show” where a comma should be used to keep the dialogue and tag connected. Additionally, “he said” is incorrectly lowercase, and “It’s” should start with a capital letter if it begins a new sentence, but in this case, the sentence structure is incorrect.
- Option D: “I loved that show,” he said: “it’s my favorite of the year.”
- The use of a colon after “he said” is incorrect. A colon is not appropriate here; a period or comma should be used. Furthermore, “it’s” should be capitalized if it starts a new sentence.
Overall, option B follows the proper punctuation and capitalization rules for dialogue.