He had long since agreed to it

[MeyaN]

"He had long since agreed to it".

Please tell me whether the above sentence is correct. Is "since" necessary or superfluous?

Thank you.

 

[Matthew Wai]

'Long since' is correct according to http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/long since

 

[Matthew Wai]

Please tell me whether the above sentence is correct?

A gentle reminder:

This is a statement: Please tell me which of the above is correct.

 

[MeyaN]

In the context that "long" should be followed by "since", is it wrong to use "long" in "Balding and thinning has long been the bane of many." ?

Also please comment about the punctuation marks above.

 

[GoesStation]

Is the usage of "long" in "Balding and thinning has long been the bane of many"? [1. No period before the quotation mark. Even if the sentence you're quoting ends with a period, the question mark after the quote is enough to end it. 2. You've left out some words before the question mark. What's your question?]

See my corrections above.

 

[MeyaN]

Thank you. But it's given that "The intention here is to avoid using the same punctuation mark
twice in succession" in the following article(please also read the paragraph below it and kindly clarify my doubt.)
1.http://www.betterwritingskills.com/articles/quotation-marks.txt

As for second correction, I directly took it from the below article:
2. First sentence in this article. http://www.thehindu.com/2001/02/18/stories/1318048a.htm

 

[GoesStation]

I'll try to review the punctuation article later.

The sentence you quoted is fine. The problem is that you didn't ask a question about it. You need to write something like Is the usage of "long" in x correct? We need to know what you're asking about before we can answer.

 

[Matthew Wai]

Is the usage of "long" in "Balding and thinning has long been the bane of many."?

'Long' is used as an adverb meaning 'for a long time' according to http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/long

 

[MeyaN]

Please see post #5. It's now been edited to make my query more clear.

 

[Matthew Wai]

1. He has long since been my friend.
2. He has long been my friend.

I think both are correct.

 

[GoesStation]

In the context that "long" should be followed by "since", is it wrong to use "long" in "Balding and thinning has long been the bane of many." ?

Also please comment about the punctuation marks above.

Since wouldn't work there. I'm afraid I'm having trouble articulating the reason. Hopefully other forum members will be able to.

The article on punctuation you linked to suggests that the period, quotation mark, question mark string could be acceptable in British English. It looks bizarre to me, and I've read quite a lot of British-published texts; but perhaps some British style guides accept it. However, please don't put a space before a question mark. This is never acceptable.