What is the difference between boro and borough

In an ideal world nothing would go inside quotes unless it was part of what was being quoted. If you follow that simple rule, as the British tend to do more than the Americans do, you'll write " Most Americans are sometimes illogical about what they put inside quotes. They even go to the ridiculous extreme of putting a period inside quotes in a statement like: A short form of "borough", when used as a part of town names, is "boro.

I do, and I see no other way to do it that makes sense. After I retired and could punctuate rationally, I began to do so, especially after I came across the British rules and realized that I was not alone in my preference. But who knows the composition of your ranks? How many people who are bound by convention would like to punctuate rationally if they could?

This has been a perennial topic of discussion in alt. The a. It says, in part: Fowler was a strong advocate of logical placement of punctuation marks, i. This scheme has gained ground, and is especially popular among computer users, and others who wish to make clear exactly what is and what is not being quoted. Logical placement is accepted by many more publishers outside than inside the U. The reason that's usually stated for putting things inside quotes that don't logically belong there is that in the days of hand-set type printers liked to place the little commas and periods where they'd be least susceptible to damage.

So you who outnumber me are following a convention that was established by printers, not writers, to satisfy the needs of a technology that is no longer commonly used. At a quick estimate I make that in favour of "".

Anyone got time to check the combined populations of Britain, Ireland, Australia, Canada probably and the English speaking populations of India, Singapore, Pakistan, otherbits of Asia and about half of Africa. Much as I appreciate and thank you for your support, Albert, I fear you've fallen prey to a common fallacy. I made a lengthy posting to a. Mark Israel asked permission to use it in the a. After Cornell Kimball called attention to the fact that there is an excellent table of language distribution in the Encyclopedia Britannica Yearbook, I have given considerable attention to that table.

I have formed from that table a new table that contains the number of English speakers in each country in the world, and I have sorted the new table in descending order of number of mother- tongue speakers. The new table also includes other categories of English speakers, and those countries that have the other categories, but no mother-tongue speakers, are sorted in alphabetical order at the end. From the new table, the total number of mother-tongue English speakers in the world is ,, When we consider that some of the numbers in the original table are rounded to the nearest ten thousand, or perhaps one hundred thousand, we realize that the least significant figures in that total don't have much meaning.

A key point in the earlier discussions had to do with my assertion that the overwhelming majority of native mother-tongue English speakers live in The United States of America. Another point that arises each time this subject is discussed is typified by the remark, "How can that be? Look at the hundreds of millions of English speakers in the Indian subcontinent!

I didn't include one entry from the Britannica data, and that was under the heading "Trinidad English" for the country "Trinidad and Tobago".

Trinidad English must be so different from other varieties of English that it didn't merit inclusion under "English Lingua Franca ". Can anyone comment on Trinidad English and its relationship to English? Kitts and Nevis , St. Vincent and the Grenadines , Tanzania 36, Trinidad and Tobago , Tunisia , Uganda , Zambia End copy of March posting Some people may object, as some did in , to the lack of any bilingual speakers shown under "United Kingdom".

The Britannica explains that they report only what the subject countries report to them. The reporter from the United Kingdom chose to ignore bilingual speakers in his count. That is the reason that is sometimes stated.

Bob likes this explanation, however, because it gives him a chance to launch the following:. My sources, who generally speaking know a lot more about the topic of composition processes and their history than I have seen come from Bob, generally attribute the origins of the practice to aesthetics, especially dating from the early days of metal composition, when intercharacter spacing was quite wide and the period appeared to float away from its rightful position.

Those of us who continue to follow the practice in spite of the outcries that "it's not logical! In fields such as linguistics or computing, it can really matter whether you say "this," or "this", so down with the copy-saboteurs who "correct" one into the other! Ancient Egyptian blessing. In those rare instances when confusion is likely, the period not only may, but perhaps should, be placed after the quotation mark.

In many cases the possibility of confusion may not be immediately apparent. CMOS has the example "which may be imagined as being included in a work of textual criticism" : The first line of Le Beau's warning to Orlando has long been regarded as reading "Good sir, I do in friendship counsel you".

They explain that "the location of the period warns against the incorrect assumption that the quoted line ends with a period". I don't think any confusion can ever result from placing the period after the quotation when it's not part of what's being quoted.

For the sake of consistency, and to avoid the possibility of overlooking possible confused interpretation, we Americans would be well-advised to convert to the British convention. I already have. In other words, where clarity is essential rational punctuation is used.

Many illogical aspects of English would be nearly impossible to fix because of the power of idiomatic usage. The weird American convention for placing periods and commas with respect to quotes could easily be fixed without seriously offending readers' tastes. Generations of American typesetters have insisted that the quotes always fall outside periods commas, too, for that matter regardless of the sense of the sentence.

The theory is that the quotes help fill the small spot of white that would be left if the period or comma came outside the quote. To see the ridiculousness of this argument, you need only read a book or magazine printed in England. The eye quickly becomes used to quotation marks put where they logically belong and you soon become accustomed to that "small spot of white" that is supposed to be so bothersome.

Realistically, however, matters are not likely to change. American printers have been handling copy this way for many decades and they aren't likely to change now just because a few voices are raised in a plea for logic and reason. Lockmakers are not so numerous here as they once were, though several well known patentees still have their works in the borough.

Two Irish soldiers being stationed in a borough in the west of England, got into a conversation respecting their quarters. Here we are eleven miles from the Borough , and at the end of the first stage out of London in the old days of the mail-coaches. New Word List Word List. Save This Word! English Language Learners Definition of borough.

Kids Definition of borough. Get Word of the Day daily email! Test Your Vocabulary. Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words? Love words? Need even more definitions? Homophones, Homographs, and Homonyms The same, but different.

Ask the Editors 'Everyday' vs. She claims that Rockaway Township's school district is rated "better" than the Boro's school district. It seems that Rockaway Boro doesn't have any major ratables to offset their property taxes. That's why the Boro's property taxes are higher. And while the Boro does have some nice housing, the Boro does border Dover. Rockaway Boro's school district is rated lower than Rockaway Township's.

I don't know if either Rockaway Boro or Rockaway Township have post offices. My friend's address is "Wharton". Posted By: meggiebut your friend should not forget that Dover is the next door neighbor. Is that good or a problem? Sep 18, at pm Edited. Sep 19, at am. Posted By: scully Posted By: meggiebut your friend should not forget that Dover is the next door neighbor. Parts of Dover are not very nice Return to all Discussions. Return to Please Help.