Jobs & Education2 mins ago
punctuation of re
Most of the time you see the word "re" it's at the beginning of a memo, where an e-mail would have its subject line.
Though you often hear people spell it out as if it were an abbreviation like RSVP, I think it's pronouonced "ray." I think the real Latin would be "in re," translated "in reference to."
Seems to me the only time you need a colon after it is in a memo heading. If you are going to use it in a sentence, you can simply write "Re your comment about my mother..." I think my friend who wrote to me, "That was an interesting idea re: vacation" and AB-ers who write "question re: dogs" are incorrect.
Am I right? Octavius and Quizmonster, you'll be able to set me straight.
Answers
No best answer has yet been selected by Kingaroo. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.I think the usage stems from formal letter writing as in...
Dear Sir,
Reference: blah de blah
Through time this has evolved, and even now we often use Ref: or more commonly Re: in our formal letter writing.
I always pronounce it 'ree', but I suppose following its beginnings it should really be a more 're' as in ref with a silent f. I commonly use it on notes and memos, emails, faxes and letters as re:, but on txt mssgs duz it rlly mattr?
Going back to the last part of your email, I guess the correct way for your friend to express it would be...
Kingaroo,
Re: Vacation
That was an interesting idea.
Regards,
Friend
But we are a lazy bunch now so one sentence is all we really need and it is less formal as the chav in a box says - innit.