A specific question about grammar in dialogue

[LoneMilf]

I apologize in advance, if this isn't the correct place to ask, but I couldn't find anywhere better.

I am writing a story and have read up on grammar rules in dialogue. However, there is one situation that I'm still wondering about. Which of these would be correct?

1) "But not now?" she asks, raising an eyebrow.
2) "But not now?", she asks, raising an eyebrow.
3) "But not now?" She asks, raising an eyebrow.

Or is there a 4th option I haven't considered?

 

[AlinaX]

I know it feels counterintuitive, but #1.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I know it feels counterintuitive, but #1.

Yep. And no shame in not remembering. I had to relearn it myself when I started here.

 

[Bamagan]

Option 1 is correct. For those that don't like the look of it, option 4 would be to rearrange the word order:
Raising an eyebrow, she asks, "But not now?"

 

[ElectricBlue]

Yes, #1.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Option 5 would be to omit the obvious fact that she's asking;

"But not now?" She raised an eyebrow.

 

[LoneMilf]

Wow.. answered competently, confirmed and even an alternative suggested - in 8 minutes. I'm impressed.
Thanks everyone

 

[SimonDoom]

Option 5 would be to omit the obvious fact that she's asking;

"But not now?" She raised an eyebrow.

Except it should be "She raises an eyebrow" in the context of the OP's example. But I agree this is a fair way to do it as well.

Among OP's options, 1 definitely is correct.

 

[KachinaDoll]

Option 1, though I'd say it was more of a punctuation question than grammar. For my characters, I don't fret over grammar - no-one's speech is grammatically correct, except for King Charles and pedants.

 

[Altissimus]

Question has been answered, but I'll add...

"If it were mid-sentence," he said, "then interjected tags need commas, and you don't need capitalisation mid-speech."
"But I'm totally done with this sentence," he said. "This sentence is a whole new one, so it's a comma before the tag and a period after. You then re-open with a capital."
"Now you can see how this would be wrong." He said.
"Given the above, do you see why the in-speech punctuation doesn't affect the tag capitalisation?" he asked.
"Even when the speaker just trails off..." he trailed off.
"Or sounds really surprised!" he exclaimed.
"It's easiest to not use tags at all (and better for your reader) if you can avoid them. But it needs to be clear who is talking."

 

[JackoK]

Some great examples above from Altissimus. My general rule in dialogue is: Always have a punctuation mark to the left (inside) the closing quotes and nothing to the right of them (outside). Usually these are commas or periods, but question marks and exclamation marks are also fine. Hence #1 is right.

 

[SimonDoom]

"Or sounds really surprised!" he exclaimed.

You gave a lot of great examples of how to handle these situations, but personally I would not use "exclaimed" after the use of an exclamation mark, because it's duplicative. I'd either use "said," to let the punctuation do the heavy lifting, or I'd use a word like "shouted" or "yelled" to indicate the volume of the voice was louder than normal.

 

[Altissimus]

You gave a lot of great examples of how to handle these situations, but personally I would not use "exclaimed" after the use of an exclamation mark, because it's duplicative. I'd either use "said," to let the punctuation do the heavy lifting, or I'd use a word like "shouted" or "yelled" to indicate the volume of the voice was louder than normal.

"'Twas illustrative!" he exclaimed.
"This tag isn't ideal either..." he trailed off, having already trailed off.
"Or, arguably, this one," he whispered really quietly in a smaller font.

 

[Altissimus]

You can actually use ChatGPT to do this stuff. It's pretty good, generally. I thought showing an example might help... here's how that went.

 

[MrPixel]

"First base!"

 

[SimonDoom]

You can actually use ChatGPT to do this stuff. It's pretty good, generally. I thought showing an example might help... here's how that went.

View attachment 2263391

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At what point did smoke start to come out of the computer?

 

[Altissimus]

At what point did smoke start to come out of the computer?

I apologise for the confusion. What computer?

 

[SimonDoom]

I apologise for the confusion. What computer?

No confusion at all. Your post reminded me of the dialogue in a few Star Trek episodes.

 

[Altissimus]

No confusion at all. Your post reminded me of the dialogue in a few Star Trek episodes.

I was channelling ChatGPT... nevermind

 

[Polranny]

I apologize in advance, if this isn't the correct place to ask, but I couldn't find anywhere better.

I am writing a story and have read up on grammar rules in dialogue. However, there is one situation that I'm still wondering about. Which of these would be correct?

1) "But not now?" she asks, raising an eyebrow.
2) "But not now?", she asks, raising an eyebrow.
3) "But not now?" She asks, raising an eyebrow.

Or is there a 4th option I haven't considered?

I reckon #3 though I could be wrong

 

[ElectricBlue]

You can actually use ChatGPT to do this stuff. It's pretty good, generally. I thought showing an example might help... here's how that went.

And people are saying this stuff has promise? From this example, not yet it doesn't!

 

[OlderFitterWiser]

Yep. And no shame in not remembering. I had to relearn it myself when I started here.

Me too, had a story rejected over this very thing.

 

[Altissimus]

And people are saying this stuff has promise? From this example, not yet it doesn't!

I find it very useful, actually. I use it for all sorts of things.

Was having a conversation with someone yesterday about Gor, and not only was ChatGPT knowledgeable on the subject, but more impressively still it was able to summarise a premise that is not even a central tenet of the series, providing an accurate summary. I admit I was quite surprised. Check this out:

 

[ElectricBlue]

I find it very useful, actually. I use it for all sorts of things.

Was having a conversation with someone yesterday about Gor, and not only was ChatGPT knowledgeable on the subject, but more impressively still it was able to summarise a premise that is not even a central tenet of the series, providing an accurate summary. I admit I was quite surprised. Check this out:

But how do you know it's even remotely close to accurate?

Your grammar example showed an error in the very first answer, and it then compounded the mistake repeatedly. Why would you then trust a single sentence it generates on any other topic? That makes no sense to me whatsoever.

That's the fundamental downside with the current ChatGPT design - what the software folk are calling "hallucinations". I call it "making shit up" - but I see that all the time in workplaces, it's nothing new. I reckon you might need to calibrate your bullshit filter, just saying .

 

[djrip]

But how do you know it's even remotely close to accurate?

Your grammar example showed an error in the very first answer, and it then compounded the mistake repeatedly. Why would you then trust a single sentence it generates on any other topic? That makes no sense to me whatsoever.

That's the fundamental downside with the current ChatGPT design - what the software folk are calling "hallucinations". I call it "making shit up" - but I see that all the time in workplaces, it's nothing new. I reckon you might need to calibrate your bullshit filter, just saying .

It's great as long as you already know the answer to whatever you're asking.