Question

The following sentence is correctly punctuated:
Maya said, "I don't know who you're talking about."
A) True
B) False

Answer 1

Hint: This question is about “Speech” and “Punctuation”. Keep in mind the grammatical rules of both the speech and Punctuation while attempting these types of questions. Also, remember to follow certain rules of the “Reported Clause” and “Reporting Clause”.

Complete answer:
Punctuation refers to the use of spacing, traditional signals, and some typographical techniques to aid in the comprehension and accurate reading of the written text, whether read silently or loudly.

In English grammar, there are 14 punctuation marks that are regularly employed. Period, question mark, exclamation point, comma, semicolon, colon, dash, hyphen, parentheses, brackets, braces, apostrophe, quote marks, and ellipsis are all examples of punctuation marks.

In the given statement, there is a grammatical error. The rule of separation of reporting clause and reported clause is not followed correctly. The rule is that there is always a comma (,) between the reported clause and reporting clause in direct speech. keeping this rule in mind, the solution of the given question can be found as followed:

Option (A)- True- This option is incorrect as there is no comma (,) before the actual quotation of the Direct Speech. According to the rule whenever we are quoting a direct speech we have to put a comma before the quotation starts.
Option (B)- False- This is the correct option as there is a comma (,) before the quoted speech. The sentence has all the required punctuations in it,

Thus the correct answer is option ‘B’.

Note: When working with punctuating the Direct Speech, remember to use the proper grammar rules.
- Reported speech is always in quotation marks (“ ”). This is one of the most basic and important rules of Direct SPeech.
- Reporting clause always has a comma (,) before the quote. This is due to the fact that it separates the two clauses and makes the reader understand who said what.
- If the reported speech is a statement, question or exclamation, proper marks are to be used within the quotation marks. This is done because the statement, in whichever form it may be, is the direct quote from the speaker and must remain unchanged and in the same form, the speaker intended it to be.