One space, or two?

[Nearly Sane]

I hadn't realized there was such a battle.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2018/05/04/one-space-between-each-sentence-they-said-science-just-proved-them-wrong-2/

[Gordon]

I'm a believer in the single space doctrine: some might find that heretical, and if so then it is they who are the heretics and we right-minded single-spacers must rise up and suppress these wrong-headed infidels.

[Harrowby Hall]

I don't think that in advanced countries there is such a struggle.

This is just a problem that has developed in one of our former colonies. When the ex-colonials manage to acquire some pretence of maturity, they will realise that the linguistic and paralinguistic behaviour of the mother country is well worth emulating.

Unfortunately, their loud voices and frequent incursions into electronic media mean that some of their educational failings (like incorrect spelling) are finding their ways into the linguistic behaviour of some of our citizens. They should be told that "color" should have two "l" s and that the second "o" should be "a".

One of their most egregious failings is to be ignorant of difference between verbs and nouns: "driving license" is an error so heinous that it almost makes the page on which it appears unreadable.

[SusanDoris]

I don't think that in advanced countries there is such a struggle.

This is just a problem that has developed in one of our former colonies. When the ex-colonials manage to acquire some pretence of maturity, they will realise that the linguistic and paralinguistic behaviour of the mother country is well worth emulating.

Unfortunately, their loud voices and frequent incursions into electronic media mean that some of their educational failings (like incorrect spelling) are finding their ways into the linguistic behaviour of some of our citizens. They should be told that "color" should have two "l" s and that the second "o" should be "a".

One of their most egregious failings is to be ignorant of difference between verbs and nouns: "driving license" is an error so heinous that it almost makes the page on which it appears unreadable.

Wel, of corse - who could possibly doubt what you say?!!

[Steve H]

I used two spaces after a full stop all my life until about a year ago, when someone convinced me it was unnecessary. On Facebook, double spaces are converted to single spaces anyway.

[jeremyp]

I hadn't realized there was such a battle.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2018/05/04/one-space-between-each-sentence-they-said-science-just-proved-them-wrong-2/

The study is fatally flawed in that they used a monospaced font. If you are using a proper proportional font you should go with the convention that typesetters have used for centuries i.e. one space after a full stop.

[ad_orientem]

I wonder why Yanks call a fullstop a period. Weird country.

I've only ever used one space.

[Nearly Sane]

I wonder why Yanks call a fullstop a period. Weird country.

I've only ever used one space.

http://grammarist.com/usage/full-stop-period/

[Aruntraveller]

Well the Grammarist is wrong surely?

Outside the U.S. and Britain, full stop is generally preferred to period,

We use full stop here don't we? Or have you all been converted to Murrican and I didn't notice.

[Harrowby Hall]

Warning - joke in poor taste ....

The menopause is a full stop ...   


More serious comment - period is an English word with more than one meaning. Full stop is a term with a specific meaning although it is also used metaphorically in non-literary situations.