punctuation

[kohyoongliat]

The sign reads, "No Smoking".
Are the quotation marks and comma obligatory?

Thanks in advance.

[Harry Smith]

Originally Posted by kohyoongliat

The sign reads, "No Smoking".
Are the quotation marks and comma obligatory?

Thanks in advance.

Yes, it's the rule of direct speech. If you report it they will disappear.

[kohyoongliat]

Thanks, Harry.

The sign reads: "No Smoking".

In AmE, a colon is used after 'read'. Am I correct?

Thanks in advance.

[Harry Smith]

Originally Posted by kohyoongliat

Thanks, Harry.

The sign reads: "No Smoking".

In AmE, a colon is used after 'read'. Am I correct?

Thanks in advance.

A coma or a colon. They are fine, I think.

[kohyoongliat]

Thanks, Harry. But I remember reading that a colon is used in AmE. Or has BrE adopted the colon?

Thanks in advance.

[Barb_D]

I (an American) would use a comma.

[kohyoongliat]

Thanks, Barb. But is the colon more often used?

Thanks for your advice.

[Noego]

Originally Posted by kohyoongliat

Thanks, Harry.

The sign reads: "No Smoking".

In AmE, a colon is used after 'read'. Am I correct?

Thanks in advance.

I don't know just how relevant this is but I Googled both:

a sign reads:
a sign read,

And I got significantly more occurrences for : "a sign reads:"

I too would say, a sign reads: "No smoking."

[kohyoongliat]

So you are different from Barb, an American, who uses a comma.

[Noego]

Well, I'm not saying he's wrong.

From my personal experience I've seen

the sign reads: "x"

most of the time. But I'm not American either. Perhaps in America the comma is more common.

It's very possible that you can use both too.

EDIT:

Actually, I might very well be wrong. The following is from this website.

"The last common misuse of the colon is with quotations. Quotations typically have a comma before it.

The football team was tired. The coach said, "We can still win."

When the quotation adds information or explains the ideas presented in the clause (part of the sentence) before the quotation, a colon is usually better. This usage usually requires that the part of the sentence before the quote be a complete idea (independent clause)."


-----------------------------------



In your example:


"The sign reads (:/,) "No Smoking."


I don't think "The sign reads" is an independent clause, so a comma might be more proper.