“What do you mean?”
“That’s so confusing!”
“I don’t understand quotation marks rules.”
There are lots of rules about using quotation marks, and it can be difficult to know where to place different punctuation marks.
For example, do you put a period inside or outside quotation marks? What about a comma? What if you have single and double quotation marks in the same sentence?
Quotation marks are used in many situations, so they show up a lot in writing. For instance, you use them for dialogue, direct quotations, short titles, and scare quotes.
But have no fear, because by the end of this article, you’ll know all the quotation marks rules.
There are lots of rules about using quotation marks, and it can be difficult to know where to place different punctuation marks.
For example, do you put a period inside or outside quotation marks? What about a comma? What if you have single and double quotation marks in the same sentence?
Quotation marks are used in many situations, so they show up a lot in writing. For instance, you use them for dialogue, direct quotations, short titles, and scare quotes.
But have no fear, because by the end of this article, you’ll know all the quotation marks rules.
The most common uses of quotation marks are either for dialogue or for direct quotations.
In the first example, two people are talking to each other directly: this is dialogue.
In the second example, the writer is copying the exact words of Dr. Marshall. And any time you quote someone word for word, you need to give them credit.
If it’s a short direct quote it’s called a run-in quotation. That means it “runs in” to the rest of the text. In the example above, Dr. Marshall’s exact words are part of another sentence. In this case, you always use quotation marks.
The other type of direct quotation is a block quotation. For block quotes, you don’t use quotation marks. Instead, you indent the entire section of directly quoted text.
And if you’re not quoting someone directly, you’re writing an indirect quotation. In this case, you don’t use quotation marks.
Here’s the same sentence written as an indirect quote:
With these simple rules, you’ll never doubt where to place a period or whether to put your comma inside or outside quotation marks.
According to American style guides, periods should always go inside the quotation marks.
Even if the period wasn’t in the original quotation, it should go inside double quotes.
Following American rules, commas go inside quotation marks just like periods.
What do you do with punctuation marks that aren’t commas or periods? Well, it depends.
If the punctuation marks are part of the original quotation, they go inside the closing quotation marks to show that. This goes for question marks, exclamation points, colons, semicolons, and dashes.
However, if the punctuation marks are not part of the original quote, they go outside the quotation marks.
There are three rules about when to capitalize the first word of a quotation.
1. If the original quotation is a complete sentence, capitalize the first letter.
Even if the quotation starts part way through your sentence, keep the first letter capitalized.
2. If you’re only quoting a few words or a phrase, don’t capitalize the quotation.
3. If you split a direct quote that’s a full sentence, don’t capitalize the second half.
Most of the time, we use double quotation marks for dialogue and direct quotes. However, what do you do for quotations within quotations?
It would look really awkward and clumsy to use two sets of double quotation marks. So, instead, we use one set of double and one set of single quotation marks. The main quotation still uses double quotes, and the inside quotation uses single ones.
You follow this same rule for quotations within a headline (such as in a newspaper or magazine.) So, if you saw these headlines, you’d use single quotation marks instead of double:
Other than quotes within quotes, there are a few other cases when you can use single quotation marks.
Most often, parentheses are used for translations within a text. But sometimes, people use single quotation marks.
Another use for single quotation marks is for common words that have become specialized vocabulary words. In certain fields, such as philosophy, history, or political science, you might come across this (in academic writing, particularly.)
There are a few other times you might see double quotation marks.
First, there are scare quotes. These are the written equivalent of air quotes. So, you use them if you want to draw attention to a word or phrase that doesn’t usually have quotes around it.
You might do this just to highlight your phrase. But, often, these quotation marks make the reader think you doubt the meaning of the word, as if you were using air quotes to be sarcastic.
Conventions for writing titles change based on the length of the work. In general, titles of long works are written in italics, but the titles of short works are written with quotation marks.
For example, a book’s title would be in italics, but the name of a chapter within the book would have quotation marks around it. Or the title of a music album would be italicized, but the title of a song on that album would be in quotation marks.
Here are some examples of titles in quotation marks:
Another time you might see quotation marks is for nicknames. They’d look something like this:
If you look in American style guides, you’ll see all the rules we’ve written above. But if you ask British people, they’ll tell you something a little different. In general, the rules of quotation marks are similar, but there are two major changes.
For American people, commas and periods go inside quotation marks, even if the punctuation isn’t part of the original quote.
But in British English, all punctuation goes outside the closing quote marks, unless it’s part of the original quotation.
The other difference is when to use double and single marks for quotes within quotes.
In the United States, regular quotations use double marks. And then if there’s a quote within that, you use single quote marks.
However, according to British rules, you start with the single and then go to double.
The only time you may see commas and periods outside the quotation marks in American English is for passwords or other computer inputs. That way, you won’t be confused about whether the punctuation is part of the input or not.
“Have you understood everything?” we asked.
These are the most common quotation mark rules, and they’re pretty straightforward once you see some examples. After a little bit of practice, you’ll be placing your punctuation like a pro.
And for more great tips and tricks to improve your writing, check out the other grammar pages on this site!