Questions about the English language

[Peter]

There's things about writing in English that keep bugging me, and which I've never found satisfactory answers to.  Should I write 'anymore' or 'any more'?  The former sounds right but comes up as an incorrect spelling while the latter seems wrong but comes up right in spell-checkers.  And what about making a contraction of 'there are'?  Is it correct to write "there's", as in "There's a lot of objects here.", when the full version would be "There are a lot of objects here."?  I've never come across "There're" used anywhere.  And what about quotations?  Is there only one way to do those, or is it a flexible system?  I know that I should use a new paragraph for each change of speaker in a dialogue, but what about nesting quotations inside other sentences?  Should it be "He said she said."?  Or "He said she said"?  Or something else?

[Soph]

I think 'anymore' is right.
'There's' should be 'there're' I think, but I've never actually seen that word used. If it's plural though then 'there's' would be incorrect I think.
And I think it's "He said she said". But I don't know.
Damn I did A level English 

[Peter]

I did higher English, but they never really taught us much grammar.  It was all about critiquing poems and stuff; we mostly only did grammar in foreign language classes.

[The_P]

There's (contraction of the pronoun "there" and the auxiliary verb "is") in formal English is incorrect. If the "object" of a sentence is plural, it should be proceeded after "are" (also an auxiliary verb).

Subject: There
Verb: are
Object (noun phrase): a lot of things.

[The_P]

Who's your daddy? ;p

[SovaNu]

i think there's is acceptable, there're is stupid.

[Peter]

There's (contraction of the pronoun "there" and the auxiliary verb "is") in formal English is incorrect. If the "object" of a sentence is plural, it should be proceeded after "are" (also an auxiliary verb).

Subject: There
Verb: are
Object (noun phrase): a lot of things.

My English language education didn't include any material on pronouns or auxiliary verbs that I remember.  I just learned it naturally, and intuit as I write, so I'm always a bit fuzzy on the specifics of the rules.

[SovaNu]

i learned naturally too, i don't have concentration for boring crap.

[The_P]

I learned naturally too; I don't have the concentration for boring crap.

Better.

[Callaway]

Whether the punctuation belongs inside or outside the quotation marks depends on whether British English or American English conventions are followed.

A good guide to American conventions is Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, while a good guide to British conventions is Fowler's A Dictionary of Modern English Usage.

[SovaNu]

I learned naturally too; I don't have concentration for boring crap.

Better.

bastard.

[The_P]

I learned naturally too; I don't have the concentration for boring crap.

Better.

bastard.

You quoted me when I didn't include the definite article "the" before "concentration".

[SovaNu]

what the hell are you talking about?

[Peter]

Whether the punctuation belongs inside or outside the quotation marks depends on whether British English or American English conventions are followed.

A good guide to American conventions is Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, while a good guide to British conventions is Fowler's A Dictionary of Modern English Usage.

That's probably the source of my uncertainty; I'll have seen both conventions and not known which one to use.

[Calandale]

There's (contraction of the pronoun "there" and the auxiliary verb "is") in formal English is incorrect. If the "object" of a sentence is plural, it should be proceeded after "are" (also an auxiliary verb).

Subject: There
Verb: are
Object (noun phrase): a lot of things.

Lot is singular. There's is correct.