Quotations for 'So-Called'
Quotation marks can be used to indicate 'supposedly', 'allegedly' or 'so-called'.
Examples:
 Peter's "mates" left him on the path to die.
(so-called mates)
The sheep were noticeably stressed. It must've been a very big "cat".
(In this example, the quotation marks play two roles. They show a quotation of somebody who claimed the culprit was a cat and also allude to the idea of a so-called cat.)
"rescue" - correct (it's not a real rescue)
(magazine article)
Using his father's equipment, Alexander found over 50,000 bacteria on a "clean"
chopping board.
(so-called clean)
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JUST SAY IT ONCE
Quotation marks can be used to indicate 'alleged' or 'so-called'. There is no need to use these actual words when using quotation marks for this purpose.
 Peter's so-called "mates" left him on the path to freeze.
(In this example, "so-called" and the quotation marks are doing the same job. This is known as tautology.)
Peter's so-called mates left him on the path to freeze.
Peter's "mates" left him on the path to freeze.
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Free Grammar Lessons
