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Quotation marks in English Wikipedia

by | Sep 10, 2025 | Partners

Another style of quoting is to use an em-dash to open a quote; this is used almost exclusively for quoting dialogues rather than for single statements, and is virtually always the one used for that purpose in works of fiction. In Polish printed books and publications, this dictionary-recommended style for guillemets (also known as »German quotes«) is used almost exclusively. Guillemet marks pointing outwards are used for definitions (mainly in scientific publications and dictionaries), as well as for enclosing spoken lines and indirect speech, especially in poetic texts. But the most frequent convention used in printed books for nested quotations is to style them in italics.
In this case, it is necessary to set the translation off with commas. In the previous sentence, “letter” was properly spelled with two “t”s. Though marshaling little evidence, the authors claim that “over half of British prisoners come from single-parent households.” In her closing statement, the prosecutor spoke forcefully of the defendant’s “callous disregard for human life.”

  • No quotes are necessary if the nickname is how a famous person is most commonly recognized, as with many historical figures.
  • They are sometimes gestured in oral speech using air quotes, or indicated in speech with a tone change or by replacement with supposedly or so-called.
  • This includes individual words, phrases, or separate clauses.
  • (An example of this error appears in the advertisements for the television show ‘Til Death.) The two very different functions of this character can cause confusion, particularly in British styles,g in which single quotes are the standard primary.
  • Some American style guides specific to certain specialties also prefer the British style.
  • 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.

French

  • Use double quotation marks to set off a direct (word-for-word) quotation.
  • Technically, the mark designating feet is a prime; the mark designating inches is a double prime.
  • Hart’s Rules and the Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors call the British style “new” quoting.
  • Unlike English, French does not identify unquoted material within a quotation by using a second set of quotation marks.
  • If the question mark or exclamation mark is not part of the quote but part of a question or statement, place it outside the quotation marks.
  • Note that the period goes inside both the single and double quotation marks.

Some computer software has the feature often called “smart quotes” which can, sometimes imperfectly, convert neutral quotation marks to typographic ones. Note that the period goes inside both the single and double quotation marks. Use double quotation marks to set off a direct (word-for-word) quotation.

Examples of Quotation Marks in Sentences

When the quoted material flows directly from your introductory text, no punctuation should be used before spinorhino casino the quotation. Short quotations can generally be run in to the main text using quotation marks. Unless they are part of the original quotation, all marks other than commas or periods are placed outside the quotation marks. Commas and periods that are part of the overall sentence go inside the quotation marks, even though they aren’t part of the original quotation. Though not necessarily logical, the American rules for multiple punctuation with quotation marks are firmly established. But make sure to place closing quotation marks only at the end of the entire passage, not at the end of each paragraph.

Do question marks and exclamation marks go inside quotes?

Both quotation marks and italics are used for the titles of works, but certain types of works use only quotes, and others use only italics. Use sic within quotations to indicate that any spelling, punctuation, grammatical errors, or unusual phrases are part of the original quoted material. Place a comma inside the quotation marks at the end of a quoted phrase. If you’re using the same word, sentence, or phrase as another author, put those words between quotation marks.
Direct quotes use the exact words from a source and require quotation marks. The curved quotation marks, as well as the straight single quotation mark, are permitted. Other usages of quotation marks (“quote„ for double, ‹quote› for single) are obsolete in Portuguese.citation needed.
The Unicode mapping for PostScript Standard Encoding preserves the typographic approximation convention by mapping its equivalent of ASCII grave and single-quote to the Unicode curly quotation mark characters. At that time typesetting did use curved quotation marks.citation needed The ASCII character set, which has been used on a wide variety of computers since the 1960s, contains the straight versions only (U+0027 ‘ APOSTROPHE and U+0022 ” QUOTATION MARK). In Brazil, angular quotation marks are rare, and curved quotation marks (“quote” and ‘quote’) are almost always used. Further, running dialogue does not use quotation marks beyond the first sentence, as changes in speaker are indicated by a dash, as opposed to the English use of closing and re-opening the quotation. In Bulgarian, Icelandic, Estonian, Lithuanian, and Russian, single quotation marks are not used.clarification needed

To quote a source directly or indirectly

Certain types of works—but not all—use quotation marks around their titles so the reader knows the work is a reference. Below, we list the seven main uses for quotation marks. It helps to break down the rules for when to use quotation marks by their function.

Place punctuation marks inside quotation marks

These same systems often drew the backtick (the free standing character U+0060 ` GRAVE ACCENT) as an ‘open quote’ glyph (usually a mirror image so it still sloped in the direction of a grave accent). The Unicode standard introduced a separate character U+2015 ― HORIZONTAL BAR to be used as a quotation dash. In addition to being standard for second level quotes, guillemet quotes are sometimes used as first level quotes in headings and titles, but almost never for ordinary text in paragraphs. Guillemet marks pointing inwards are used for highlights and in case a quotation occurs inside a quotation.

With regard to quotation marks adjacent to periods and commas, there are two styles of punctuation in widespread use. 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). Never use single quotation marks in sentences like the previous three.
During the Renaissance, quotations were distinguished by setting in a typeface contrasting with the main body text (often italic type vs roman). 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. (Despite the different code points, the curved and straight versions are sometimes considered multiple glyphs of the same character.) Question marks in a quotation within a quotation can get tricky. If a quotation functions as a subject or object in a sentence, it might not need a comma. Technically, the mark designating feet is a prime; the mark designating inches is a double prime.

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