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Home > Quotation mark

They have a variety of forms in different languages and in different media.

1 Usage

1.1 Quotations & speech

For quotations consisting of more than one paragraph, an opening quotation mark should appear at the beginning of each paragraph of the quoted text and a closing quotation mark at the end of the last paragraph only.

When the 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.

‘Good morning, Dave,’ said HAL.

“Good morning, Dave,” said HAL.

The British style is to have the punctuation outside the quotation marks for small quoted phrases:

Someone shouted ‘Shut up!’.

Also called “plain quotes”, they are teardrops.

Despite what is sometimes written on discussions of punctuation, British positioning is the same as American in complete quoted speech:

‘Good morning, Dave,’ said HAL.

In some subject areas (such as software documentation and chemistry), it is conventional to include only what is part of the quoted phrase within the quotes, for clarity:

Enter the URL as “www.wikipedia.org”, the name as “Wikipedia”, and click "OK".

It is, however, rarely used in books, unless it is absolutely necessary:

You are now in the “X Window System.” Click the icon called “xterm,” go to the parent directory typing “cd ..”, and run the command “du -sh .”.

For speech within speech:

‘HAL said, “Good morning, Dave”,’ said Frank.

“HAL said, ‘Good morning, Dave’,” said Frank.

It is generally considered incorrect to use quotation marks for paraphrased speech:

WRONG: HAL said that “Everything was going extremely well.”

RIGHT: HAL said that everything was going extremely well.

In American English, commas and periods always go inside the quotation marks, no matter the circumstance:

He is called "HAL."

Also called “plain quotes,” they are teardrops.

Question marks and exclamation marks must rely on logic to determine whether they go inside or outside:

Did he say, "Good morning, Dave"?

No, he said, "Where are you, Dave?"

(Note that in the above sentences, only one punctuation mark is used at the end of each sentence. Regardless of its placement, only one end mark (?, !, or .) can end a sentence in American English, whereas in British English, the combination ?". is acceptable.)

In addition, end marks always go inside single quotes, too:

Dave said, "Did HAL say 'Good morning,' or did he not?"

"He said, 'Good morning.' Right?"

When a double quotation mark immediately follows a single quotation mark, a space is inserted.

So Dave actually said, "He said, 'Good morning' "?

Yes, he did say, "He said, 'Good morning.' "

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