Reader’s question:

Even the quote unquote realistic movies don't show very realistic violence. Could you explain “quote unquote”?

My comments:

Putting it another way: Even the realistic, quote unquote, movies don’t show very realistic violence.

The speaker is merely putting the word “realistic” in quote marks in speech.

In writing, you have “” as quote marks. In speech, you say quote (for “, beginning of the quote) unquote (for “, end of quote).

When you put something in quote marks, of course, you mean to say it ain’t necessarily so.

In the above example, the speaker means that the so called “realistic” movies are NOT realistic.

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本文僅代表作者本人觀點，與本網立場無關。歡迎大家討論學術問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發布一切違反國家現行法律法規的內容。

Zhang Xin has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.