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.
British English puts commas and periods (full stops) outside the quotation marks unless the quotation is also a complete sentence or the punctuation is part of the quotation. The UWSC says that British people write it "this way".
Extra letters. The American writing style often opts for fewer letters, while the British writing style often doubles letters or adds extra vowels. British English has many spellings that use ae or oe vowels to achieve a certain sound. American English tends to use only the e.
Most British style guides do not mandate its use. The Economist Style Guide notes that most British writers use it only where necessary to avoid ambiguity. A few British style guides mandate it, most notably The Oxford Style Manual (hence the name, "Oxford comma").
While double quotation marks are the standard in American English, single quotation marks are standard in British English. That means double quotation marks in England are only used to replace single quotation marks within quotes.
Quotation marks: In British English, single quotation marks are used, and in American English, double quotation marks are used. In British English, double quotation marks are used within the single quotation marks, whereas in American English, single quotation marks are used inside double quotation marks.
Style Manual for Authors Editors and Printers, the style manual adopted by the Australian government and universities, and the Macquarie Dictionary (Australia's most up to date dictionary) both clearly state that Australian English must always make use of the single quotation marks for speech and quoting.
Typically, in Australian English, we only use an Oxford comma when a list would be unclear without one, such as in the example sentence above. In American English, it is often standard to use an Oxford comma in lists.
The relatively small-scale dispute gained international notoriety last year when the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled that the missing comma created enough uncertainty to side with the drivers, granting those who love the Oxford comma a chance to run a victory lap across the internet.
Defenders of the Oxford comma claim that, without seperating the final two items in a given list, the reader automatically combines the words. Opponents say that a grammatical rule cannot simply be disregarded whenever it seems to become ambiguous. If you favor the Oxford comma, it needs to be used every single time.
1 syllable: "BLOO"
Many American words replace the “s” used in British spelling with a “z” for words such as “realize,” “apologize” and “cozy.” Using a “z” instead of an “s” makes more sense because we pronounce these words with a “z” sound. Besides, “z” is much more fun to use than “s”! Thus, “cozy” is the more logical spelling.
British English is the form of English used in the United Kingdom. It includes all English dialects used within the United Kingdom. Differences between American and British English include pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary (lexis), spelling, punctuation, idioms, and formatting of dates and numbers.
Great Britain and the United States are two of the few places in the world that use a period to indicate the decimal place. Many other countries use a comma instead. The decimal separator is also called the radix character.
Comma Before But
If you are joining two independent clauses, use a comma before the word but. Where the but is not joining two independent clauses, do not use a comma. The comma is a useful and multifunctional part of English grammar, it can help the flow of a piece of text and provide a small break for the reader.
The period (known as a full stop in British English) is probably the simplest of the punctuation marks to use. You use it like a knife to cut the sentences to the required length.
Many opponents of the Oxford comma claim that it makes a piece of writing sound more pretentious and stuffy, and that it can make things seem cluttered and redundant.
The use of the Oxford comma is a matter of style, meaning that some publishing styles stipulate its use while others don't. In other words, it's not incorrect to use the Oxford comma or not to use it, but it is advisable to be consistent one way or the other.
The use of the Oxford comma, many people argue, is overly pedantic, and in some situations, its use can sound pompous and hypercorrect. It is usually perfectly possible to discern the meaning of a sentence without it.
Australian English follows British spelling very closely but many common words are spelt differently in American English. Despite being spelt differently, the meaning of the word is the same. Australian and American English have different ways of spelling certain words, such as those ending with 'yse' or 'ise'.
Australians, however, tend to follow the British preference of not using the serial comma. In Australian English, there is NO comma between the last two items in a list. Therefore, an Australian list may look something like this: My favorite things to toss on the barbie are shrimp, shrimp and more shrimp.
Grammatical features of Australia English
For example, in terms of spelling, Australian English most closely resembles British English. The 'u' is retained in words like 'colour' and the 'ise' ending is used instead of the Americanised 'ize' suffix on words like 'realise'/'realize'.
Another slightly tricky issue is punctuation. Australian and British English place commas and full stops outside speech marks unless they are used in the original quote.
In Australian English, as shown above, we typically use single quotes marks for dialogue. However, this is largely a matter of preference in fiction, so you can also use “double quote marks”. You may have also spotted the words outside the quote marks above. This is a dialogue tag.
The full stop should be placed before the closing quotation mark when the sentence quoted is a full grammatical sentence, i.e a sentence that can stand on its own and is complete.