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Wiskel
02-17-2010, 11:44 AM
I'm not sure about the punctuation if I try to use two different ways of addressing someone in the same line of dialogue.

I have a character that likes to add "man" at the end of his dialogue but his accent leads to it becoming "mon" e.g "What are you doing, mon?" It might help to imagine something close to a bad carribean accent.

He's addressing a soldier who likes to be called "Captain" and out of habit he's still going to add "mon" at the end sometimes. There will be no pause at all and Captainmon will sound as if it could be one word.

Not sure if I should use
"Whatever you say, Captain, mon."
"Whatever you say, Captain. Mon."
or possibly even "Whatever you say, Captainmon."
I don't really like the third one.

Equally, I could use some guidance on the same situation but done differently. For example if a solider said "Whatever you say, Captain, Sir." as in this dialogue I'd expect a short pause between "captain" and "Sir" and the emphesis on "Sir"

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated

Craig

Maryn
02-17-2010, 05:27 PM
I would go with separating the two titles, each of them serving as a direct address. That even follows the rules.

"Whatever you say, Captain, mon." (The bad Caribbean accent advice totally worked, and gave me a chuckle, too.)

It's analogous to:
"Whatever you say, Mr. Hand, dude."
"Whatever you say, Manuel, my friend."
"Whatever you say, Professor Pinsky, man."
"Whatever you say, Sgt. Shaftoe, sir!"

Maryn, whose husband was addressed as Herr Doktor Professor Maryn at one point

Wiskel
02-18-2010, 03:13 AM
Thank you Maryn.

Much appraciated. Don't you just love those situations where you look at something too closely and every answer starts to look strange.

Craig

Chase
02-18-2010, 04:13 AM
Thank you Maryn.

Considering the advice from Maryn, dearest, the above looks strange.

I don't mean Maryn . . . well, maybe a little. Did I just say mean Maryn? You, know, I'm just going to stop here and hope the hit men think Oregon is too far to travel to in winter.

Maryn
02-18-2010, 05:00 AM
Hey, at least I'm not dead. (Inside joke. Carry on as if I hadn't spoken.)

Maryn, quite alive for the moment