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Quotation marks are punctuation marks used in pairs in various writing systems to identify direct speech, a quotation, or a phrase. The pair consists of an opening quotation mark and a closing quotation mark, which may or may not be the same glyph. Quotation marks have a variety of forms in different languages and in different media.
- History
- Usage
- Order of Punctuation
- Typographical Considerations
- See Also
- External Links
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 qu...
Quotations and speech
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 Australia (though the Australian Government prefers single quotes), Canada and New Zealand. Single quotes are more usual in the United Kingdom, Ireland and South Africa, though double quotes are also common there, especially in journalistic works[clarification needed].A publisher's or author's style may take precedence over regional general p...
Irony
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
Quotation marks are also used to indicate that the writer realises that a word is not being used in its current commonly accepted sense: 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 memecould be described as an "evolving idea". Peop...
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 se...
Primary quotations versus secondary quotations
Primary quotations are orthographically distinguished from secondary quotationsthat 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,...
Spacing
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 systematica...
Non-language-related usage
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, b...
ASCII and Unicode quotation marks – discussion of the problem of ASCII grave accentcharacters used as left quotation marksThe use of quotation marks, also called inverted commas, is very slightly complicated by the fact that there are two types: single quotes ( ` ') and double quotes ( " " ). As a general rule, British usage has in the past usually preferred single quotes for ordinary use, but double quotes are now increasingly common; American usage has always ...
You can use single inverted commas ‘ ’ or double quotation marks “ ” to punctuate the quotation. Just make sure you stick to the same punctuation mark and don’t swap between the two.
- Speech marks. Punctuation is used in direct speech to separate spoken words, or dialogue, from the rest of a story. The words spoken by a character sit inside speech marks
- New speaker, new line. Direct speech is carefully structured to help the reader follow the conversation. Every time there is a new speaker in the conversation, a new line is used.
- Punctuation inside speech marks. Each section of direct speech should end with a punctuation mark. If there is no reporting clause then this is likely to be a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark
- Moving the reporting clause. Sometimes the reporting clause is added in the middle of the direct speech: “I think we should go inside now,” said Molly. “I just saw the lights come on.”
Use double quotation marks (" ") to enclose phrases or entire sentences that were taken word for word from someone else. Quotation marks are not needed for paraphrasing. Example: The dog he brings on the trip is eleven and "too old and arthritic to be allowed in December water" (Hall 372), but the fisherman selfishly brings him along anyway.
Quotation Marks. Punctuating Quotations. Quotation marks are used to set off a person's words, whether spoken or written. They are placed at both the beginning and end of the quote. Ex: Sue remarked, "I'll meet you at the movies,"
