Usage of “think to oneself” with quotes
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"That was a dream come true," he thought to himself, "Can this really happen?"
"Teaching Don to swim would be a piece of cake for him," the coach thought to himself.
In the above sentences, should the part that one thinks/thought to himself appear in quotation marks?
Tnx, Tommy.
grammar grammaticality punctuation
asked Oct 29 at 16:01
Tommy
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bumped to the homepage by Community♦ 35 mins ago
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"That was a dream come true," he thought to himself, "Can this really happen?"
"Teaching Don to swim would be a piece of cake for him," the coach thought to himself.
In the above sentences, should the part that one thinks/thought to himself appear in quotation marks?
Tnx, Tommy.
grammar grammaticality punctuation
asked Oct 29 at 16:01
Tommy
664
bumped to the homepage by Community♦ 35 mins ago
This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed.
Re: the 2nd sentence, the coach would not refer to himself as "him" in an internal dialogue, so it really isn't one if "him" refers to the coach. Also, some consider thought to himself/herself to be redundant in most contexts (see link below), but it can be a 'cute' emphasis when someone is 'thinking hard'...I thinks to myself, ha-ha. quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/…
– KannE
Oct 29 at 19:16
Re: the 1st sentence, if "Can this really happen?" means 'Am I still dreaming?' or something similar, it makes sense to me. Otherwise, I'm thinking...wait, the dream come true has already happened...or are "this" and "That" two different things?
– KannE
Oct 29 at 19:37
1
Some styles use italics for thoughts, especially when dealing with a running narrative.
– Hot Licks
Oct 31 at 0:13
add a comment |
up vote
0
down vote
favorite
up vote
0
down vote
favorite
"That was a dream come true," he thought to himself, "Can this really happen?"
"Teaching Don to swim would be a piece of cake for him," the coach thought to himself.
In the above sentences, should the part that one thinks/thought to himself appear in quotation marks?
Tnx, Tommy.
grammar grammaticality punctuation
asked Oct 29 at 16:01
Tommy
664
"That was a dream come true," he thought to himself, "Can this really happen?"
"Teaching Don to swim would be a piece of cake for him," the coach thought to himself.
In the above sentences, should the part that one thinks/thought to himself appear in quotation marks?
Tnx, Tommy.
grammar grammaticality punctuation
grammar grammaticality punctuation
asked Oct 29 at 16:01
Tommy
664
asked Oct 29 at 16:01
Tommy
664
asked Oct 29 at 16:01
Tommy
664
asked Oct 29 at 16:01
Tommy
664
asked Oct 29 at 16:01
Tommy
664
664
bumped to the homepage by Community♦ 35 mins ago
This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed.
bumped to the homepage by Community♦ 35 mins ago
This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed.
Re: the 2nd sentence, the coach would not refer to himself as "him" in an internal dialogue, so it really isn't one if "him" refers to the coach. Also, some consider thought to himself/herself to be redundant in most contexts (see link below), but it can be a 'cute' emphasis when someone is 'thinking hard'...I thinks to myself, ha-ha. quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/…
– KannE
Oct 29 at 19:16
Re: the 1st sentence, if "Can this really happen?" means 'Am I still dreaming?' or something similar, it makes sense to me. Otherwise, I'm thinking...wait, the dream come true has already happened...or are "this" and "That" two different things?
– KannE
Oct 29 at 19:37
1
Some styles use italics for thoughts, especially when dealing with a running narrative.
– Hot Licks
Oct 31 at 0:13
add a comment |
Re: the 2nd sentence, the coach would not refer to himself as "him" in an internal dialogue, so it really isn't one if "him" refers to the coach. Also, some consider thought to himself/herself to be redundant in most contexts (see link below), but it can be a 'cute' emphasis when someone is 'thinking hard'...I thinks to myself, ha-ha. quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/…
– KannE
Oct 29 at 19:16
Re: the 1st sentence, if "Can this really happen?" means 'Am I still dreaming?' or something similar, it makes sense to me. Otherwise, I'm thinking...wait, the dream come true has already happened...or are "this" and "That" two different things?
– KannE
Oct 29 at 19:37
1
Some styles use italics for thoughts, especially when dealing with a running narrative.
– Hot Licks
Oct 31 at 0:13
Re: the 2nd sentence, the coach would not refer to himself as "him" in an internal dialogue, so it really isn't one if "him" refers to the coach. Also, some consider thought to himself/herself to be redundant in most contexts (see link below), but it can be a 'cute' emphasis when someone is 'thinking hard'...I thinks to myself, ha-ha. quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/…
– KannE
Oct 29 at 19:16
Re: the 2nd sentence, the coach would not refer to himself as "him" in an internal dialogue, so it really isn't one if "him" refers to the coach. Also, some consider thought to himself/herself to be redundant in most contexts (see link below), but it can be a 'cute' emphasis when someone is 'thinking hard'...I thinks to myself, ha-ha. quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/…
– KannE
Oct 29 at 19:16
Re: the 1st sentence, if "Can this really happen?" means 'Am I still dreaming?' or something similar, it makes sense to me. Otherwise, I'm thinking...wait, the dream come true has already happened...or are "this" and "That" two different things?
– KannE
Oct 29 at 19:37
Re: the 1st sentence, if "Can this really happen?" means 'Am I still dreaming?' or something similar, it makes sense to me. Otherwise, I'm thinking...wait, the dream come true has already happened...or are "this" and "That" two different things?
– KannE
Oct 29 at 19:37
1
1
Some styles use italics for thoughts, especially when dealing with a running narrative.
– Hot Licks
Oct 31 at 0:13
Some styles use italics for thoughts, especially when dealing with a running narrative.
– Hot Licks
Oct 31 at 0:13
add a comment |
1 Answer
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If I understand you correctly, you are asking whether, when 'quoting' what someone thought, one uses the same rules as when quoting what someone said ('direct reported speech'). The answer is yes: you use the exact same punctuation, grammar, etc. when reporting what someone thought as when reporting what someone said.
Having said that, the first sentence is a bit strange, and would be strange even if instead of he thought to himself you had he said. I would break it up differently, so that he thought to himself appears within a single sentence, e.g.
"That," he thought to himself, "was a dream come true. Can this really happen?"
answered Oct 29 at 17:58
linguisticturn
4,9041232
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
0
down vote
If I understand you correctly, you are asking whether, when 'quoting' what someone thought, one uses the same rules as when quoting what someone said ('direct reported speech'). The answer is yes: you use the exact same punctuation, grammar, etc. when reporting what someone thought as when reporting what someone said.
Having said that, the first sentence is a bit strange, and would be strange even if instead of he thought to himself you had he said. I would break it up differently, so that he thought to himself appears within a single sentence, e.g.
"That," he thought to himself, "was a dream come true. Can this really happen?"
answered Oct 29 at 17:58
linguisticturn
4,9041232
add a comment |
up vote
0
down vote
If I understand you correctly, you are asking whether, when 'quoting' what someone thought, one uses the same rules as when quoting what someone said ('direct reported speech'). The answer is yes: you use the exact same punctuation, grammar, etc. when reporting what someone thought as when reporting what someone said.
Having said that, the first sentence is a bit strange, and would be strange even if instead of he thought to himself you had he said. I would break it up differently, so that he thought to himself appears within a single sentence, e.g.
"That," he thought to himself, "was a dream come true. Can this really happen?"
answered Oct 29 at 17:58
linguisticturn
4,9041232
add a comment |
up vote
0
down vote
up vote
0
down vote
If I understand you correctly, you are asking whether, when 'quoting' what someone thought, one uses the same rules as when quoting what someone said ('direct reported speech'). The answer is yes: you use the exact same punctuation, grammar, etc. when reporting what someone thought as when reporting what someone said.
Having said that, the first sentence is a bit strange, and would be strange even if instead of he thought to himself you had he said. I would break it up differently, so that he thought to himself appears within a single sentence, e.g.
"That," he thought to himself, "was a dream come true. Can this really happen?"
answered Oct 29 at 17:58
linguisticturn
4,9041232
If I understand you correctly, you are asking whether, when 'quoting' what someone thought, one uses the same rules as when quoting what someone said ('direct reported speech'). The answer is yes: you use the exact same punctuation, grammar, etc. when reporting what someone thought as when reporting what someone said.
Having said that, the first sentence is a bit strange, and would be strange even if instead of he thought to himself you had he said. I would break it up differently, so that he thought to himself appears within a single sentence, e.g.
"That," he thought to himself, "was a dream come true. Can this really happen?"
answered Oct 29 at 17:58
linguisticturn
4,9041232
edited Oct 30 at 23:02
answered Oct 29 at 17:58
linguisticturn
4,9041232
answered Oct 29 at 17:58
linguisticturn
4,9041232
answered Oct 29 at 17:58
linguisticturn
4,9041232
4,9041232
add a comment |
add a comment |
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Re: the 2nd sentence, the coach would not refer to himself as "him" in an internal dialogue, so it really isn't one if "him" refers to the coach. Also, some consider thought to himself/herself to be redundant in most contexts (see link below), but it can be a 'cute' emphasis when someone is 'thinking hard'...I thinks to myself, ha-ha. quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/…
– KannE
Oct 29 at 19:16
Re: the 1st sentence, if "Can this really happen?" means 'Am I still dreaming?' or something similar, it makes sense to me. Otherwise, I'm thinking...wait, the dream come true has already happened...or are "this" and "That" two different things?
– KannE
Oct 29 at 19:37
1
Some styles use italics for thoughts, especially when dealing with a running narrative.
– Hot Licks
Oct 31 at 0:13