When a word is in quotes

Quotation marks around single words can occasionally be used for emphasis, but only when quoting a word or term someone else used. Usually, this implies that the author doesn’t agree with the use of the term. He said he was “working”; it looked to me like he was procrastinating.

What are single quotation marks used for?

Quote direct speech in single quote marks. Single quotation marks are also known as ‘quote marks’, ‘quotes’, ‘speech marks’ or ‘inverted commas’. Use them to: show direct speech and the quoted work of other writers.

How do I put words in a quote?

Put quotation marks (single or double) around the exact words of a direct quotation. Inside a quotation, use a suspension to mark omitted material and square brackets to mark inserted material. Use quotation marks to distance yourself from a word or phrase or to show that you are using it ironically.

When should you use quotation marks?

The primary function of quotation marks is to set off and represent exact language (either spoken or written) that has come from somebody else. The quotation mark is also used to designate speech acts in fiction and sometimes poetry.

When should something be in quotes or italicized?

Italics are used for large works, names of vehicles, and movie and television show titles. Quotation marks are reserved for sections of works, like the titles of chapters, magazine articles, poems, and short stories.

Should I use single or double quotes?

If you are an American, using quotation marks could hardly be simpler: Use double quotation marks at all times unless quoting something within a quotation, when you use single. It’s different in the greater Anglosphere, where they generally use singles in books and doubles in newspapers.

How do you emphasize a word in writing?

If you need to emphasize a word or a particular fact in a sentence, you can use italics to stress it. That said, italics and other font changes lose their impact if overused. It is best to use such devices sparingly and rely on strong writing and strategic word placement to get your point across.

What are the 3 rules for using quotations?

Quotation marks and other punctuation marks
In the United States, the rule of thumb is that commas and periods always go inside the quotation marks, and colons and semicolons (dashes as well) go outside: “There was a storm last night,” Paul said.

Do you always need a comma before a quote?

As a general rule, you should use a comma to introduce quoted material or dialogue. That’s because in most types of dialogue, the quoted material stands apart from the surrounding text. In grammatical terms, it’s “syntactically independent.”

How do you properly quote?

Proper Punctuation – Quotes

1. If you start by telling who said it, use a comma and then the first quotation mark.
2. If you put the quote first and then tell who said it, use a comma at the end of the sentence, and then the second quotation mark.
3. Punctuation always goes inside the quotation marks if it is a direct quote.

Should thoughts be in quotes?

When you’re quoting a source, use quotation marks to indicate a character’s thoughts, and make it clear in your prose that you are quoting thoughts, not speech:If you’re writing fiction, you may style a character’s thoughts in italics or quotation marks.

Do you put a period after a quote that ends in a period?

If a sentence ends with quoted material, the period is placed inside the closing quotation mark, even if the period is not part of the original quotation.

When should the quotations be used in text Mcq?

The rule is that whenever you use more than three consecutive words of an original text you must put them within quotation marks. You have failed to indicate, by means of direct quotation marks, which are the exact words of the original.

Is The Great Gatsby underlined or italicized?

In most cases, you should italicize the titles of complete works, like books: The Great Gatsby, Beloved, and The Catcher in the Rye. You would also italicize the names of feature-length films, like Rocky, Schindler’s List, and Frozen.

Do you put titles in quotes?

The rules for quotation marks around titles vary depending on which style guide you follow. In general, you should italicize the titles of long works, like books, movies, or record albums. Use quotation marks for the titles of shorter pieces of work: poems, articles, book chapters, songs, T.V. episodes, etc.

Do you put articles in quotes or italics MLA?

Italicize titles if the source is self-contained and independent. Titles of books, plays, films, periodicals, databases, and websites are italicized. Place titles in quotation marks if the source is part of a larger work. Articles, essays, chapters, poems, webpages, songs, and speeches are placed in quotation marks.

Can you use single quotes for emphasis?

Quotation marks around single words can occasionally be used for emphasis, but only when quoting a word or term someone else used.If a word needs to be emphasized but is not being quoted, you should avoid putting the word in quotes and use italics instead.

Does punctuation go inside quotes?

Put commas and periods within quotation marks, except when a parenthetical reference follows. He said, “I may forget your name, but I never forget a face.”Place the punctuation outside the closing quotation marks if the punctuation applies to the whole sentence.

What is the difference between single quotes and double quotes?

General Usage Rules
Double quotes are used to mark speech, for titles of short works like TV shows and articles, as scare quotes to indicate irony or an author’s disagreement with a premise.Single quotes are used to enclose a quote within a quote, a quote within a headline, or a title within a quote.

How do you emphasize a point?

Using words and expressions that emphasize a point

1. Call it out.
2. Use Repetition.
3. Talk Softly.
4. Slow down your voice during the point you want to emphasize.
5. Instigate intense eye contact with your audience.
6. Stop moving around the stage and assume the power stance.
7. Sit down.
8. Simplify your.

How do you use the word emphasize in a sentence?

Emphasize Sentence Examples

1. To emphasize his words, he lifted her hand and placed it over his heart.
2. He spoke louder to emphasize his next point in the speech.
3. The chroniclers emphasize the fact that this king was not of royal descent.

What punctuation should be used when words are inserted or altered in a direct quotation?

When writers insert or alter words in a direct quotation, square brackets—[ ]—are placed around the change. The brackets, always used in pairs, enclose words intended to clarify meaning, provide a brief explanation, or to help integrate the quote into the writer’s sentence.  A common error writers make is to use parentheses in place of brackets.

How are square brackets used around clarifying or explanatory words?

Let’s look at an example:

Quotation with brackets used correctly around a clarifying word:

“It [driving] imposes a heavy procedural workload on cognition that . . . leaves little processing capacity available for other tasks” (Salvucci and Taatgen 107). [1]

Note: Brackets are placed around the inserted word in this example to let the reader know that ‘driving’ clarifies the meaning of the pronoun ‘it.’

Quotation with parentheses incorrectly used in place of brackets:

“It (driving) imposes a heavy procedural workload on cognition that . . . leaves little processing capacity available for other tasks” (Salvucci and Taatgen 107).

Note: Parentheses are used incorrectly in place of brackets in this example, making the inserted word look like it could be part of the original text.

Let’s look at another example:

Quotation with brackets used correctly around an explanatory insert:

“[D]riving is not as automatic as one might think; in fact, it imposes a heavy procedural workload [visual and motor demands] on cognition that . . . leaves little processing capacity available for other tasks” (Salvucci and Taatgen 107).

Note: Brackets are placed around the inserted words in this example to provide further explanation of the “procedural workload” discussed in the original text.

Quotation with parentheses incorrectly used in place of brackets:

“[D]riving is not as automatic as one might think; in fact, it imposes a heavy procedural workload (visual and motor demands) on cognition that . . . leaves little processing capacity available for other tasks” (Salvucci and Taatgen 107).

Note: Parentheses are used incorrectly in place of brackets in this example, making the inserted words look like they are part of the original text.

How are square brackets used to help integrate a quote properly?

Let’s look at an example:

Original direct quotation beginning with an upper case letter:

“The heavy cognitive workload of driving suggests that any secondary task has the potential to affect driver behavior” (Salvucci and Taatgen 108).

Integrated quotation with brackets used correctly to indicate a change in letter case:

Salvucci and Taatgen propose that “[t]he heavy cognitive workload of driving suggests that any secondary task has the potential to affect driver behavior” (108).

Note: Brackets are placed around the lower-case letter ‘t’ to indicate that the letter case has been changed. The quotation is introduced by a signal phrase, which makes the quote an integral part of the writer’s sentence; as a result of this syntactical change, the upper case ‘T’ in the original is changed to a lower case letter.

Let’s look at another example:

Original direct quotation written in the past tense:

“Not coincidentally, drivers have been increasingly engaging in secondary tasks while driving” (Salvucci and Taatgen 68).

Note: The authors’ words appear in the past tense in the original text.

Quotation with brackets used correctly to indicate a change in verb tense:

“Not coincidentally, drivers [are] increasingly engaging in secondary tasks while driving” (Salvucci and Taatgen 68).

Note: Brackets are placed around the word ‘are’ to indicate that the verb has been changed to the present tense, which is the preferred tense for most writing in MLA style. The past tense is preferred for APA style writing. 

A word of caution: Bracketed insertions may not be used to alter or add to the quotation in a way that inaccurately or unfairly represents the original text. Quite simply, do not use bracketed material in a way that twists the author’s meaning.

Bracket Use: Quick Summary

Do	Don’t
Use brackets to enclose inserted words intended to clarify meaning within a quotation.	Use parentheses when inserting words into a quotation.
Use brackets to enclose inserted words intended to provide a brief explanation within a quotation.	Use parentheses to enclose a change in letter case or verb tense when integrating a quote into your paper.
Use brackets to enclose a change in letter case or verb tense when integrating a quote into your paper.	Use bracketed material in a way that twists the author’s meaning.

[1] Salvucci, Dario D., and Niels A. Taatgen. Multitasking Minds. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2011. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 20 Feb. 2012.

Unlike other kinds of writing you might do for school, storytelling thrives on quoted speech, also known as direct speech. In a traditional academic paper, indirect speech is the norm, but in a story it’s easier and more natural to let the characters speak for themselves. So, if you are writing a story, you’ll probably be using at least some direct speech. I hope this page will help you feel confident to do that, and if you have any questions that I have not answered here, please let me know!

Direct versus indirect. Direct speech means we get to hear the words as they come directly from the mouth of the character. In indirect speech, the words are reported in a subordinate clause. Direct speech uses quotation marks; indirect speech does not. If you compare direct versus indirect speech in these examples, I think you will see that direct speech is more clear, more succinct — and more alive!

INDIRECT		DIRECT
The hare said that he would challenge the tortoise to a race.		The hare said, «I will challenge the tortoise to a race!«
The hare thought that he could beat the tortoise easily.		The hare thought, «I can beat the tortoise easily!«
The hare asked the tortoise whether he would agree to a race.		The hare asked the tortoise, «Will you agree to a race?«

As these examples show, indirect speech has complicated rules for how to change the verbs and pronouns from the direct statement into their indirect restatement. When you use direct speech, you don’t have to change the words, but you do have to know how to use the punctuation marks that separate the quoted words from the rest of the story. The rules below explain just how to do that:

Rule #1: Use quotation marks for all direct speech. 

When someone’s words are repeated exactly as that person said or wrote them, you need to put those words in quotation marks:

• The hare said, «I will challenge the tortoise to a race.»

Direct speech is not limited to words that are spoken out loud or written down. You should also report someone’s thoughts as direct speech inside quotation marks:

• The hare thought, «I know I can beat the tortoise easily!»

Note that an explicit verb of speaking or thinking is not required. The quotation marks alone can be enough to indicate the transition to direct speech:

• The tortoise pondered for a moment, grinned, and nodded slowly. «I accept your offer, Mr. Hare.»

When you are writing dialogue, you will need to decide on the best mix of dialogue tags (words like «said,» «asked,» etc.) and dialogue beats (words that describe the action). Either way, the quoted words still go inside quotation marks.

Rule #2: Quotation marks are used in pairs. 

There is an opening quotation mark that comes before the first word of the quoted speech, and then there is a closing quotation mark that comes after the last word of the quoted speech.

• The hare said to the tortoise, «You are so slow that I will beat you very easily.»

In some fonts, you can see a slightly different shape used for the opening and closing quotation marks:

• The hare said to the tortoise, “You are so slow that I will beat you very easily.”

This style is sometimes called «smart quotes,» and it is usually a feature you can turn on or off in your word processor based on which style you prefer.

Rule #3: The first word of a quoted sentence is capitalized. 

In quoted speech, just as in other forms of writing, you capitalize the first word of every sentence:

• «When should we do it?» asked the tortoise.

Here’s what can be tricky: you also capitalize the first word of the quoted sentence even when it is being inserted inside another sentence, as in this example:

• The tortoise asked, «When should we do it?»

The word «When» is capitalized because it is the first word of a quoted sentence, even though it is not the first word of the main sentence.

Rule #4: You can include multiple sentences inside a single set of quotation marks. 

As long as the character is speaking, you can keep on quoting those words inside the same set of quotation marks. Here is an example where there are three sentences inside the quotation marks:

• The hare said to the tortoise, «You are so slow that I will beat you very easily. In fact, I feel sorry for you because you are so slow. I know I will defeat you!»

The opening quotation mark shows where the hare started speaking, and the closing quotation mark shows where the hare stopped speaking. All three sentences go inside the single pair of quotation marks.

Rule #5: When the QUOTED SPEECH comes AFTER the verb of speaking, you use a comma after the verb of speaking and before the quoted speech. 

Here’s an example that shows quoted speech after the verb of speaking, with a comma between the verb of speaking and the quoted speech:

• The hare said to the tortoise, «I challenge you to a race!»

This use of the comma helps the reader by signaling the break between the main sentence and the quoted speech while letting us know that this is still one big sentence.

Rule #6: When the QUOTED SPEECH comes BEFORE the verb of speaking and the final sentence of the quoted speech ends with a PERIOD, you replace the period at the end of the final quoted sentence with a comma. 

Here is an example where the quoted speech, ending with a period, comes before the verb of speaking. The period at the end of the quoted speech changes to a comma:

• «I accept your challenge,» the tortoise replied.

The original quoted sentence ended with a period: «I accept your challenge.» This rule only applies to quoted sentences that end with a period; for sentences that end with a question mark or with an exclamation mark, see the next rule.

Rule #7: When the QUOTED SPEECH comes BEFORE the verb of speaking and the final sentence of the quoted speech ends with an EXCLAMATION MARK or a QUESTION MARK, you do NOT replace the exclamation mark or question mark with a comma. 

Instead of replacing the exclamation mark or question mark with a comma, you just leave it unchanged. Here’s an example with an exclamation mark:

• «I challenge you to a race!» the hare said to the tortoise.

Here’s an example with a question mark:

• «When should we do it?» asked the hare.

You can combine Rule #6 and Rule #7 as follows: when you have quoted speech coming before the verb of speaking, you replace the final period of the quoted speech with a comma — but you do not replace an exclamation mark or a question mark.

Rule #8: You can split a quoted sentence into two parts that are wrapped around the verb of speaking. 

When the quoted sentence is split, you put a comma after the first chunk of quoted speech, and you also put a comma after the verb of speaking clause. Here is an example:

• «I challenge you,» the hare said, «to a race!»

The quoted statement («I challenge you to a race!») has been wrapped around the verb of speaking. To make this style work, you need both commas: a comma after the first chunk of quoted speech, along with a comma after the verb of speaking. These commas signal the breaks between direct and indirect speech while alerting us that this is still one big sentence.

Rule #9: Punctuation marks for quoted speech always go inside the quotation marks, not outside. 

Here are some examples:

• Period: «I accept your challenge.»
• Comma: «I accept your challenge,» replied the tortoise.
• Question Mark: «When should we do it?» asked the hare.
• Exclamation Mark: «I challenge you to a race!» the hare said to the tortoise.

All four types of punctuation marks — period, comma, question mark, and exclamation mark — go inside the quotation marks that indicate quoted speech. This is a rule that does not necessarily apply to other uses of quotation marks in English, but it is a rule you can confidently apply to quoted speech.

Rule #10: After you have closed a quotation in one sentence, you need to use a new set of quotation marks for quoted speech in the next sentence.

When you have a quoted sentence (or sentences) together with a verb of speaking, that is a complete sentence. As a result, you need another set of quotation marks to indicate quoted speech in the next sentence. Here’s an example of a complete sentence using quoted speech:

• «I challenge you to a race!» the hare said to the tortoise.

If the hare is going to start speaking again in the next sentence, you need another set of quotation marks, even if the hare is still the speaker:

• «I challenge you to a race!» the hare said to the tortoise. «You are so slow that I will beat you very easily. In fact, I feel sorry for you already because I know you will lose.»

If you have multiple paragraphs of quoted speech by the same speaker, see this page for what to do: Quoted Paragraphs.

~ ~ ~

As for the tortoise and the hare, I am sure you know what happened: the hare was not just confident — he was overconfident, and the tortoise turned out to be the winner of the race. Slow and steady wins the race. It applies to writing too: slow down, proofread, and make sure you are using the correct punctuation for the quoted speech in your stories. It’s a winning strategy!

“ ”
Double typographic quotes
‘ ’ » » ‘ ‘ Single typographic quotes Neutral double quotes Neutral single quotes

In English writing, quotation marks or inverted commas, also known informally as quotes, talking marks,^[1][2] speech marks,^[3] quote marks, quotemarks or speechmarks, are punctuation marks placed on either side of a word or phrase in order to identify it as a quotation, direct speech or a literal title or name. Quotation marks may be used to indicate that the meaning of the word or phrase they surround should be taken to be different from (or, at least, a modification of) that typically associated with it, and are often used in this way to express irony. (For example, in the sentence ‘The lunch lady plopped a glob of «food» onto my tray.’ the quotation marks around the word food show it is being called that ironically.) They also sometimes appear to be used as a means of adding emphasis, although this usage is usually considered incorrect.^[4]

Quotation marks are written as a pair of opening and closing marks in either of two styles: single (‘…’) or double (“…”). Opening and closing quotation marks may be identical in form (called neutral, vertical, straight, typewriter, or «dumb» quotation marks), or may be distinctly left-handed and right-handed (typographic or, colloquially, curly quotation marks); see quotation mark glyphs for details. Typographic quotation marks are usually used in manuscript and typeset text. Because typewriter and computer keyboards lack keys to directly enter typographic quotation marks, much of typed writing has neutral quotation marks. Some computer software has the feature often called «smart quotes» which can, sometimes imperfectly, convert neutral quotation marks to typographic ones.

The typographic closing double quotation mark and the neutral double quotation mark are similar to – and sometimes stand in for – the ditto mark and the double prime symbol. Likewise, the typographic opening single quotation mark is sometimes used to represent the ʻokina while either the typographic closing single quotation mark or the neutral single quotation mark may represent the prime symbol. Characters with different meanings are typically given different visual appearance in typefaces that recognize these distinctions, and they each have different Unicode code points. Despite being semantically different, the typographic closing single quotation mark and the typographic apostrophe have the same visual appearance and code point (U+2019), as do the neutral single quote and typewriter apostrophe (U+0027).^[5] (Despite the different code points, the curved and straight versions are sometimes considered multiple glyphs of the same character.)^[6]

History[edit]

In the first centuries of typesetting, quotations were distinguished merely by indicating the speaker, and this can still be seen in some editions of the Christian Bible. During the Renaissance, quotations were distinguished by setting in a typeface contrasting with the main body text (often italic type with roman, or the other way around). Long quotations were also set this way, at full size and full measure.^[7]

Quotation marks were first cut in metal type during the middle of the sixteenth century, and were used copiously by some printers by the seventeenth. In some Baroque and Romantic-period books, they would be repeated at the beginning of every line of a long quotation. When this practice was abandoned, the empty margin remained, leaving the modern form of indented block quotation.^[7]

In Early Modern English, quotation marks were used to denote pithy comments. They were used to quote direct speech as early as the late sixteenth century, and this practice became more common over time.^[8][9]

Usage[edit]

Quotations and speech[edit]

Single or double quotation marks denote either speech or a quotation. Double quotes are preferred in the United States, and also tend to be preferred in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Single quotes are more usual in the United Kingdom, Ireland and South Africa, though double quotes are also common there.^[10] A publisher’s or author’s style may take precedence over regional general preferences. The important idea is that the style of opening and closing quotation marks must be matched:

For speech within speech, the other style is used as inner quotation marks:

Sometimes quotations are nested in more levels than inner and outer quotation. Nesting levels up to five can be found in the Christian Bible.^[11] In these cases, questions arise about the form (and names) of the quotation marks to be used. The most common way is to simply alternate between the two forms,^[12] thus:

» … ‘ … » … ‘ … ‘ … » … ‘ … «

If such a passage is further quoted in another publication, then all of their forms have to be shifted up by one level.

In many cases, quotations that span multiple paragraphs are set as block quotations, and thus do not require quotation marks. However, quotation marks are used for multiple-paragraph quotations in some cases, especially in narratives, where the convention in English is to give opening quotation marks to the first and each subsequent paragraph, using closing quotation marks only for the final paragraph of the quotation, as in the following example from Pride and Prejudice:

The letter was to this effect:

«My dear Lizzy,

«I wish you joy. If you love Mr. Darcy half as well as I do my dear Wickham, you must be very happy. It is a great comfort to have you so rich, and when you have nothing else to do, I hope you will think of us. I am sure Wickham would like a place at court very much, and I do not think we shall have quite money enough to live upon without some help. Any place would do, of about three or four hundred a year; but however, do not speak to Mr. Darcy about it, if you had rather not.

«Yours, etc.»

As noted above, in some older texts, the quotation mark is repeated every line, rather than every paragraph.

When quoted text is interrupted, such as with the phrase he said, a closing quotation mark is used before the interruption, and an opening quotation mark after. Commas are also often used before and after the interruption, more often for quotations of speech than for quotations of text:

«Everything», said Hal, «is going extremely well.»

Quotation marks are not used for indirect speech. This is because indirect speech can be a paraphrase; it is not a direct quote, and in the course of any composition, it is important to document when one is using a quotation versus when one is just giving content, which may be paraphrased, and which could be open to interpretation.

For example, if Hal says: «All systems are functional», then, in indirect speech:

Irony[edit]

Another common use of quotation marks is to indicate or call attention to ironic, dubious, or non-standard words:

Quotes indicating verbal irony, or other special use, are sometimes called scare quotes. They are sometimes gestured in oral speech using air quotes, or indicated in speech with a tone change or by replacement with supposed[ly] or so-called.

Signalling unusual usage[edit]

Quotation marks are also used to indicate that the writer realises that a word is not being used in its current commonly accepted sense:

Crystals somehow «know» which shape to grow into.

In addition to conveying a neutral attitude and to call attention to a neologism, or slang, or special terminology (also known as jargon), quoting can also indicate words or phrases that are descriptive but unusual, colloquial, folksy, startling, humorous, metaphoric, or contain a pun: Dawkins’s concept of a meme could be described as an «evolving idea».

People also use quotation marks in this way to distance the writer from the terminology in question so as not to be associated with it, for example to indicate that a quoted word is not official terminology, or that a quoted phrase presupposes things that the author does not necessarily agree with; or to indicate special terminology that should be identified for accuracy’s sake as someone else’s terminology, as when a term (particularly a controversial term) pre-dates the writer or represents the views of someone else, perhaps without judgement (contrast this neutrally distancing quoting to the negative use of scare quotes).

The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition (2017),^[13] acknowledges this type of use but, in section 7.57, cautions against its overuse: «Quotation marks are often used to alert readers that a term is used in a nonstandard (or slang), ironic, or other special sense …. [T]hey imply ‘This is not my term,’ or ‘This is not how the term is usually applied.’ Like any such device, scare quotes lose their force and irritate readers if overused.»

Use–mention distinction[edit]

Either quotation marks or italic type can emphasise that an instance of a word refers to the word itself rather than its associated concept.

A three-way distinction is occasionally made between normal use of a word (no quotation marks), referring to the concept behind the word (single quotation marks), and the word itself (double quotation marks):

When discussing ‘use’, use «use».

The logic for this derives from the need to distinguish use forms, coupled with the mandate to retain consistent notation for like use forms.^[14] The switching between double and single quotes in nested citation quotes reveals the same literary device for reducing ambiguity.

In linguistics[edit]

Precise writing about language often uses italics for the word itself and single quotation marks for a gloss, with the two not separated by a comma or other punctuation,^[15] and with strictly logical quotation around the gloss – extraneous terminal punctuation outside the quotation marks – even in North American publications, which might otherwise prefer them inside:^[16]

Latin ovis ‘sheep’, canis ‘dog’, and equus ‘horse’ are nouns.

Titles of artistic works[edit]

Quotation marks, rather than italics, are generally used for the titles of shorter works. Whether these are single or double depends on the context; however, many styles, especially for poetry, prefer the use of single quotation marks.

• Short fiction, poetry, etc.: Arthur C. Clarke’s «The Sentinel»
• Book chapters: The first chapter of 3001: The Final Odyssey is «Comet Cowboy»
• Articles in books, magazines, journals, etc.: «Extra-Terrestrial Relays», Wireless World, October 1945
• Album tracks, singles, etc.: David Bowie’s «Space Oddity»

As a rule, the title of a whole publication is italicised (or, in typewritten text, underlined), whereas the titles of minor works within or a subset of the larger publication (such as poems, short stories, named chapters, journal papers, newspaper articles, TV show episodes, video game levels, editorial sections of websites, etc.) are written with quotation marks.

Nicknames and false titles[edit]

Quotation marks can also set off a nickname embedded in an actual name, or a false or ironic title embedded in an actual title; for example, Nat «King» Cole, Frank «Chairman of the Board» Sinatra, or Simone Rizzo «Sam the Plumber» DeCavalcante.

Nonstandard usage[edit]

Quotes are sometimes used for emphasis in lieu of underlining or italics, most commonly on signs or placards. This usage can be confused with ironic or altered-usage quotation, sometimes with unintended humor. For example, For sale: «fresh» fish, «fresh» oysters, could be construed to imply that fresh is not used with its everyday meaning, or indeed to indicate that the fish or oysters are anything but fresh. As another example, Cashiers’ desks open until noon for your «convenience» could be interpreted to mean that the convenience was for the bank employees, not the customers.^[4]

Order of punctuation[edit]

With regard to quotation marks adjacent to periods and commas, there are two styles of punctuation in widespread use. These two styles are most commonly referred to as «American» and «British», or sometimes «typesetters’ quotation» and «logical quotation». Both systems have the same rules regarding question marks, exclamation points, colons, and semicolons. However, they differ in the treatment of periods and commas.^[17][18]

In all major forms of English, question marks, exclamation marks, semicolons, and any other punctuation (with the possible exceptions of periods and commas, as explained in the sections below) are placed inside or outside the closing quotation mark depending on whether they are part of the quoted material.^[19]

A convention is the use of square brackets to indicate content between the quotation marks that has been modified from, or was not present in, the original material.

British style[edit]

The prevailing style in the United Kingdom – called British style,^[17][19] logical quotation,^[20] and logical punctuation^[21] – is to include within quotation marks only those punctuation marks that appeared in the original quoted material and in which the punctuation mark fits with the sense of the quotation, but otherwise to place punctuation outside the closing quotation marks.^[21] Fowler’s A Dictionary of Modern English Usage provides an early example of the rule: «All signs of punctuation used with words in quotation marks must be placed according to the sense.»^[22]

When dealing with words-as-words, short-form works and sentence fragments, this style places periods and commas outside the quotation marks:

When dealing with direct speech, according to the British style guide Butcher’s Copy-editing,if a quotation is broken by words of the main sentence, and then resumed, the punctuation before the break should follow the closing quote unless it forms part of the quotation. An exception may be made when writing fiction, where the first comma may be placed before the first closing quote.^[14] In non-fiction, some British publishers may permit placing punctuation that is not part of the person’s speech inside the quotation marks but prefer that it be placed outside.^[14] Periods and commas that are part of the person’s speech are permitted inside the quotation marks regardless of whether the material is fiction.^[14]

Hart’s Rules and the Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors call the British style «new» quoting. It is also similar to the use of quotation marks in many other languages (including Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, Catalan, Dutch and German). A few US professional societies whose professions frequently employ various non-word characters, such as chemistry and computer programming, use the British form in their style guides (see ACS Style Guide).

According to the Jargon File from 1983, American hackers (members of a subculture of enthusiastic programmers) switched to what they later discovered to be the British quotation system because placing a period inside a quotation mark can change the meaning of data strings that are meant to be typed character-for-character.^[23]

Some American style guides specific to certain specialties also prefer the British style.^[18] For example, the journal Language of the Linguistic Society of America requires that the closing quotation mark precede the period or comma unless that period or comma is «a necessary part of the quoted matter».^[16] The websites Wikipedia and Pitchfork use logical punctuation.^[21]

American style[edit]

In the United States, the prevailing style is called American style,^[19] whereby commas and periods are almost always placed inside closing quotation marks.^{[24][25][26][27][28]} The American style is used by most newspapers, publishing houses, and style guides in the United States and, to a lesser extent, Canada as well.

When dealing with words-as-words, short-form works, and sentence fragments, standard American style places periods and commas inside the quotation marks:

This style also places periods and commas inside the quotation marks when dealing with direct speech, regardless of whether the work is fiction or non-fiction:

Nevertheless, many American style guides explicitly permit periods and commas outside the quotation marks when the presence of the punctuation mark inside the quotation marks leads to ambiguity, such as when describing keyboard input, as in the following example:

In the programming language Pascal, the statement «end.«, including the period/full stop, signifies the end of a program.

The American style is recommended by the Modern Language Association’s MLA Style Manual, the American Psychological Association’s APA Publication Manual, the University of Chicago’s The Chicago Manual of Style, the American Institute of Physics’s AIP Style Manual, the American Medical Association’s AMA Manual of Style, the American Political Science Association’s APSA Style Manual, the Associated Press’ The AP Guide to Punctuation, and the Canadian Public Works’ The Canadian Style.^[29] This style is also used in British news and fiction.^[30][14]

Ending the sentence[edit]

In both major styles, regardless of placement, only one end mark (?, !, or .) can end a sentence. Only the period, however, may not end a quoted sentence when it does not also end the enclosing sentence, except for literal text:^[18][31][32]

With narration of direct speech, both styles retain punctuation inside the quotation marks, with a full stop changing into a comma if followed by attributive matter, also known as a speech tag or annunciatory clause. Americans tend to apply quotations when signifying doubt of veracity (sarcastically or seriously), to imply another meaning to a word or to imply a cynical take on a paraphrased quotation, without punctuation at all.

Typographical considerations[edit]

Primary quotations versus secondary quotations[edit]

Primary quotations are orthographically distinguished from secondary quotations that may be nested within a primary quotation. British English often uses single quotation marks to identify the outermost text of a primary quotation versus double quotation marks for inner, nested quotations. By contrast, American English typically uses double quotation marks to identify the outermost text of a primary quotation versus single quotation marks for inner, nested quotations.

British usage does vary, with some authoritative sources such as The Economist and The Times recommending the same usage as in the US,^[33] whereas other authoritative sources, such as The King’s English, Fowler’s, and New Hart’s Rules, recommend single quotation marks.^[34] In journals and newspapers, quotation mark double/single use often depends on the individual publication’s house style.

Spacing[edit]

In English, when a quotation follows other writing on a line of text, a space precedes the opening quotation mark unless the preceding symbol, such as an em dash, requires that there be no space. When a quotation is followed by other writing on a line of text, a space follows the closing quotation mark unless it is immediately followed by other punctuation within the sentence, such as a colon or closing punctuation. (These exceptions are ignored by some Asian computer systems that systematically display quotation marks with the included spacing, as this spacing is part of the fixed-width characters.)

There is generally no space between an opening quotation mark and the following word, or a closing quotation mark and the preceding word. When a double quotation mark or a single quotation mark immediately follows the other, proper spacing for legibility may suggest that a thin space ( ) or larger non-breaking space ( ) be inserted.

This is not common practice in mainstream publishing, which will generally use more precise kerning. It is more common in online writing, although using CSS to create the spacing by kerning is more semantically appropriate in Web typography than inserting extraneous spacing characters.

[edit]

Straight quotation marks (or italicised straight quotation marks) are often used to approximate the prime and double prime, e.g. when signifying feet and inches or arcminutes and arcseconds. For instance, 5 feet and 6 inches is often written 5′ 6″; and 40 degrees, 20 arcminutes, and 50 arcseconds is written 40° 20′ 50″. When available, however, primes should be used instead (e.g. 5′ 6″, and 40° 20′ 50″). Prime and double prime are not present in most code pages, including ASCII and Latin-1, but are present in Unicode, as characters U+2032 ′ PRIME and U+2033 ″ DOUBLE PRIME. The HTML character entity references are ′ and ″, respectively.

Double quotation marks, or pairs of single ones, also represent the ditto mark.

Straight single and double quotation marks are used in most programming languages to delimit strings or literal characters, collectively known as string literals. In some languages (e.g. Pascal) only one type is allowed, in some (e.g. C and its derivatives) both are used with different meanings and in others (e.g. Python) both are used interchangeably. In some languages, if it is desired to include the same quotation marks used to delimit a string inside the string, the quotation marks are doubled. For example, to represent the string eat ‘hot’ dogs in Pascal one uses 'eat ''hot'' dogs'. Other languages use an escape character, often the backslash, as in 'eat 'hot' dogs'.

In the TeX typesetting program, left double quotes are produced by typing two back-ticks (``) and right double quotes by typing two apostrophes (''). This is a continuation of a typewriter tradition of using ticks for opening quotation marks; see Quotation mark § Typewriters and early computers.

Typing quotation marks on a computer keyboard[edit]

Standard English computer keyboard layouts inherited the single and double straight quotation marks from the typewriter (the single quotation mark also doubling as an apostrophe), and they do not include individual keys for left-handed and right-handed typographic quotation marks. In character encoding terms, these characters are labeled unidirectional. However, most computer text-editing programs provide a «smart quotes» feature to automatically convert straight quotation marks into bidirectional punctuation, though sometimes imperfectly (see below). Generally, this smart quote feature is enabled by default, and it can be turned off in an «options» or «preferences» dialog. Some websites do not allow typographic quotation marks or apostrophes in posts. One can skirt these limitations, however, by using the HTML character codes or entities^[35] or the other key combinations in the following table. In Windows, AutoHotkey scripts can be used to assign simpler key combinations to opening and closing quotation marks.

How to type typographic quotation marks (and apostrophes) on a computer keyboard

	Windows Alt code combinations	Macintosh key combinations	Linux (X) keys	Unicode point	HTML entity	HTML decimal
Single opening	‘	Alt+0145 (on number pad)	⌥ Opt+]	Compose+<+' or Alt Gr+⇧ Shift+V	U+2018	&lsquo;	‘
Single closing (& apostrophe[36][37])	’	Alt+0146 (on number pad)	⌥ Opt+⇧ Shift+]	Compose+>+' or Alt Gr+⇧ Shift+B	U+2019	&rsquo;	’
Double opening	“	Alt+0147 (on number pad)	⌥ Opt+[	Compose+<+" or Alt Gr+v	U+201C	&ldquo;	“
Double closing	”	Alt+0148 (on number pad)	⌥ Opt+⇧ Shift+[	Compose+>+" or Alt Gr+b	U+201D	&rdquo;	”

(For additional characters used in other languages, see quotation mark glyphs.)

Smart quotes[edit]

To make typographic quotation marks easier to enter, publishing software often automatically converts typewriter quotation marks (and apostrophes) to typographic form during text entry (with or without the user being aware of it). Out-of-the-box behavior on macOS and iOS is to make this conversion. These are known as smart quotes (“…”). Straight quotation marks are also retronymically called dumb quotes («…»).^[38]

The method for producing smart quotes may be based solely on the character preceding the mark. If it is a space or another of a set of hard-coded characters or if the mark begins a line, the mark will be rendered as an opening quote; if not, it will be rendered as a closing quote or apostrophe. This method can cause errors, especially for contractions that start with an apostrophe or text with nested quotations:

Text as typed	Desired result	Example erroneous results
’14	’14	‘14
I forgot my ‘phone.	I forgot my ’phone.	I forgot my ‘phone.
‘Twas the night before Christmas …[39]	’ Twas the night before Christmas …	‘ Twas the night before Christmas …
«‘Hello,’ he said, ‘to you'»	“ ‘Hello,’ he said, ‘to you’ ”	“ ‘Hello,’ he said, ‘to you’ “ “ ’Hello,’ he said, ‘to you’ ”

In Windows, if it is necessary to follow a space with a closing quotation mark when Smart Quotes is in effect, it is usually sufficient to input the character using the Alt code shown above rather than typing " or '.

See also[edit]

• Guillemet, the French quotation mark
• International variation in quotation marks
• Modifier letter double apostrophe
• ʻOkina
• Typewriter conventions
• Western Latin character sets (computing)

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Curling Quotes in HTML, SGML, and XML
• Quotation marks in the Unicode Common Locale Data Repository
• ASCII and Unicode quotation marks – discussion of the problem of ASCII grave accent characters used as left quotation marks
• Commonly confused characters
• Quotation mark