how to type speech marks

How to make quotation mark (“ and ” symbols) on your keyboard

• font size decrease font size increase font size

Want to write a quote but can't figure out how to make the quote marks symbols that aren't on your keyboard?

All you have to do is make the following key combinations:

Make quotation mark (“ and ” symbols) on Windows

So : alt + 0 1 4 7  →  “, so : alt + 0 1 4 8  → ”, make quotation mark (“ and ” symbols) on mac / apple.

To make the left quotation mark , keep the   Option ⌥    key pressed (to the left of the space key), then type the left bracket   [ and finally release Alt  

So : Option ⌥  + [  →  “

To make the right quotation mark , hold the   Option ⌥  and  Shift ⇧  keys  pressed , then type the left bracket  [  then  f inally release all keys .

So : Option ⌥  +   Shift ⇧  + [  → ”

"  i don't have a numeric keypad on my keyboard, what should i do  ".

• If you don't have a numeric keypad  on your keyboard, make sure you have activated the function  Num Lock .  If not, press the  Fn  +  button   Num Lock .
• If you do not have the function   Num Lock  on your keyboard, try first pressing the key   Fn  and then performing the combination with  Alt   described in the previous paragraph.
• If you still can't do it, don't hesitate to copy and paste the symbol from this article to the location of your choice.

" I have a Mac / Macbook / Apple computer "

If you have a  Mac / Apple  keyboard , the technique is the same.  The   Alt ⌥ key can also be called   Option ⌥  but it is always the key just to the left of the Space bar.

Latest from Zesolution.com

• How to make the best Georgian cheese bread aka Adjaruli khachapuri?
• How to make the "Salati Nigvzit", the best Georgian tomato and cucumber salad with walnuts?
• How to lock your computer on Windows / Mac
• How to make the cross † (dagger) and double cross ‡ (double dagger) on your keyboard
• How to make the middle dot (·) on your keyboard
• Interior work
• Mathematics
• Professional life
• Fashion, beauty
• Administratives procedures

What are speech marks? Examples and how to use them

In this guide, learn what speech marks are and take a look at some examples!

Author Eliana Sk

Published April 14, 2022

Author Jane Doe

Learn what speech marks are and take a look at some examples!

Author Eliana Doe

• Key takeaways
• Speech marks are special punctuation marks that show the exact words someone has spoken
• Speech marks look like this: “ ”
• Knowing the difference between direct speech and indirect speech can help us know how to use speech marks

Table of contents

What are speech marks?

Where are speech marks used, how to use speech marks.

From novels to news reports, speech marks are used in all sorts of places! In this guide, we take a look at what they are, where they’re used and some handy rules to keep in mind when using them.

Speech marks are special punctuation marks that show the exact words someone has spoken.

They’re also known as quotation marks and inverted commas, and they always appear in pairs at the beginning and end of what was said.

This is what they look like:  “ ”

And here’s an example of some speech marks in action:

“The words that appear between speech marks are the exact words that someone has said,” said the teacher.

You can find speech marks everywhere. They’re common in stories, news articles, poetry and essays. By showing when someone is speaking, speech marks can help make a text more lively and easier to read.

In a story, speech marks may show which of the characters is speaking. For example, in a children’s book you may read:

“We always eat in the garden,” said Markus.

In a news article, speech marks can be used to show a statement made by an expert. For example:

Economists say that “the increase in production will help the job market to grow”.

Unlock unlimited English questions

Put your learning into practice with fun exercises + games that are proven to boost ability!

Get 1 FREE month of Doodle!

Use code SCHOOL_24 to kick-start school with unlimited questions and games

Explore speech marks with DoodleEnglish

DoodleEnglish is an award-winning app that’s filled with thousands of questions and games exploring spelling, grammar and punctuation!

Designed by teachers, it creates each child a unique work programme tailored to their needs, boosting their skills with just 10 minutes of use a day. Try it free!

When do children learn about speech marks?

Children usually start learning about speech marks around the age of 7.

Before they learn about speech marks, they’ll first be taught about other forms of punctuation, including full stops, commas, exclamation marks and question marks.

Being able to tell the difference between direct and indirect speech will help children to effectively use speech marks.

• Direct speech:  shows the exact words that were spoken by a person or character. Speech marks are used at the beginning and end of direct speech to represent what someone has said.
• Indirect speech:  shows what someone said without using their exact words. Speech marks aren’t used in these cases.
• A  reporting clause  will let a reader know who said the direct speech and how they said it.

You should always separate direct speech from the reporting clause by a comma.

This may sound a little complicated, but if we look at an example it will all be clearer.

Anne said, “It’s snowing!”

In this example, ‘Anne said’ is the reporting clause, as it lets us know that it was Anne who spoke. This clause is separated by a comma from Anne’s direct speech, which is represented by the text between the speech marks (“It’s snowing!”).

If you’re writing a conversation between multiple people, reporting clauses can also help to clarify who’s speaking, and when.

Speech mark examples

Let’s take a look at some examples of speech marks in actions. These will help us better understand the different uses of speech marks.

The teacher said that Anthony’s story was “exceptionally written” and that’s why she read it to the whole class.

In this example, a fragmented part of the teacher’s statement is quoted. This is why the statement isn’t capitalised and has no punctuation before or within the quotation marks.

Markus laughed, “Did you see how high I jumped?”

“I know! It was amazing!” Adriana agreed.

In this example, two different people are speaking. The reporting clauses (‘Marcus laughed’ and ‘Adriana agreed’) shows us who is speaking. Each speaker is also placed on a new line to help the reader see that a new person has started speaking.

“It’s amazing,” William exclaimed, “there are bubbles everywhere!”

In this example, the statement made by William is separated by the reporting clause. This is a fun way of adding some character to your writing when using speech marks.

“Polar bears are my favourite real animals,” Mario said. He then told us about the mythical animals he likes more than polar bears.

This is an interesting example because only part of what Mario said is directly written down. The rest is summarised in indirect speech, and this is why there are no speech marks in the second sentence.

How to use speech marks when writing

If you’d like to quote a phrase or statement, using speech marks will show the reader that these aren’t your original words.

Speech marks are also a great way to give emphasis to certain phrases.

If you’re writing stories, they’ll also help to separate when the different characters are talking. Keep in mind that speech is a faster way of moving a story forward, so be careful about how much you use them!

General rules for using speech marks

There are a few helpful rules to keep in mind when using speech marks:

• Sentences made by different characters or people will need to be in separate lines
• If you’re using a person’s full statement, the punctuation of the sentence will need to be within the quotation marks. This includes full stops, exclamation marks, and question marks.
• If a reporting clause is before the speech marks, you’ll need a comma to separate the two. This comma will be before the speech marks.
• If a reporting clause comes in the middle of two quoted sentence parts, you’ll need a comma at the end of the speech marks in the first part and at the beginning of the speech marks in the second part of the sentence

Final thoughts

Using speech marks is relatively easy once you realise they’re only used to express what someone said. When writing an essay or story, speech marks can also help to make your writing more interesting and lively!

To learn even more about speech marks, why not download the  DoodleEnglish app ?

It’s filled with interactive exercises exploring the topic, making it the perfect way to put your learning into practice.

Best of all, it’s designed to be used for just 10 minutes a day — and you can try it for absolutely free!

FAQs about speech marks

Speech marks are punctuation marks that show the words someone has spoken. They’re also known as quotation marks and inverted commas.

If we look at an example: Peter said, “It’s raining!”

‘Peter said’ is a reporting clause, as it lets us know that it was Peter who spoke.

This clause is separated by a comma from Peter’s direct speech, which is represented by the text between the speech marks (“It’s raining!”).

You should use speech marks each time someone speaks.

Speech marks are also called ‘inverted commas’.

You should use inverted commas whenever someone speaks in your writing.

Single speech marks (‘ ‘) can be used to replace double quotation marks (” “) when they’re inside of double quotation marks.

Try DoodleEnglish for free!

Related posts

Complex sentence guide

Find out what complex sentences are and how to use them

Spelling activities for KS2

There are lots of fun ways you can liven up spelling practice!

What is SPaG? A guide

SPaG is a really important concept in English, but what does it mean?

What we offer

Quick links

All rights reserved. 

Book a chat with our team

I’m new to Doodle

My school is already using Doodle

Are you a parent, teacher or student?

Get started for free!

Maths information pack

We ask for your contact info so we can send our info pack directly to your inbox for your convenience, exam prep information pack, case studies information pack, information pack, we ask for your contact info so that our education consultants can get in touch with you and let you know a bit more about doodle., student login, which programme would you like to use.

DoodleMaths

DoodleTables

DoodleEnglish

DoodleSpell

If you’d like to use Doodle’s browser version, please visit this page on a desktop.

To log in to Doodle on this device, you can do so through our apps. You can find out how to download them here:

• Shop Now: Amazon Labor Day Tech Sale
• Get These 12 Student Discounts!

How to Type Curly Quotes and Curly Apostrophes

Use keyboard shortcuts, HTML codes, or the Windows Character Map

• Southern New Hampshire University
• Step-by-Step: Create Smart Quotes in Word
• Step-by-Step: Smart Quotes on Mac
• Step-by-Step: Using HTML
• Keyboard Shortcuts Reference
• Curly Quotes and Apostrophes

More About the Straight Apostrophe

• Frequently Asked Questions

What to Know

• MS Word: Type  ALT + 0145  for a left single quotation mark or apostrophe and  ALT + 0146  for a right one.
• Type  ALT + 0147  for a left double quotation mark and  ALT + 0148  for a right one.
• macOS: Type Option + ] (left single quote); Shift + Option + ] (right); Option + [  (left double); Shift + Option + [  (right).

This article explains how to type and use curly quote marks (also called smart quotes) and apostrophes in all versions of Microsoft Windows and macOS .

Create Smart Quotes in Microsoft Word

To manually insert smart quotes, the keyboard must have a numeric keypad, and you must activate the Num Lock key. To use the numeric codes, press and hold the Alt key, then type the four-digit character code on the numeric keypad.

• Use  ALT + 0145  and  ALT + 0146  for the left and right single quotation marks or apostrophes, respectively. 
• Use  ALT + 0147  and  ALT + 0148  for the left and right double quotation marks, respectively.

Use the numeric keypad and not the row of numbers above the alphabet. The top number row does not work for this procedure.

If your keyboard lacks a numeric keypad, use the Character Map. To launch it, press Win + R and type charmap in the Run box. When it opens, find the character you want to insert, and click Select . Select Copy when you've selected all the characters you want to add, then paste them into the document.

The great thing about Character Map is that it supports all possible glyphs within a typeface, not only the ones accessible from the keyboard.

Create Smart Quotes on Mac

To manually insert smart quotes, type the following keys simultaneously:

• Type  Option + ] for the left (open) and Shift + Option + ] for the right (closed) single quote mark or apostrophe, respectively.
• Type  Option + [  for the left and  Shift + Option + [ for the right curved double quotation marks, respectively.

Add Smart Quotes to Web Pages

Web typography works a little differently. Smart quotes do not always work well on the web, so most sites use straight quotes.

However, if you want to add curly quotes to HTML code, do the following:

• For the curly single opening and closing quote mark (or apostrophe), use ‘ and ’ respectively.
• For the curly opening and closing double quotation marks, use “ and ” respectively.

Oversized curly quotes add interest to pull-quotes in articles or general information pages.

Quick Reference Chart of Keyboard Shortcuts

Why Curly Quotes and Apostrophes?

To present a professional appearance in print or to meet the style guidelines of a client, use proper typographer quotation marks and apostrophes in your desktop publishing documents. These quotation and apostrophe marks are curled left and right, unlike the straight single and double quote marks on a keyboard's apostrophe key.

Straight quotes come from the type­writer. In print­ing and typesetting, all quota­tion marks were curly, but type­writer char­ac­ter sets were lim­ited by mechan­i­cal constraints and phys­i­cal space. By re­plac­ing the curly open­ing and clos­ing quotes with am­bidex­trous straight quotes, two slots be­came avail­able for other characters.

The straight marks on the apostrophe key are also called primes. You can use the single straight mark for feet and minutes and the double mark for inches and seconds, as in 1'6" for 1 foot, 6 inches, or 30'15" for 30 minutes, 15 seconds.

To type a Unicode character, enter the character code, press ALT , and then hold down X. For example, type 00b0 (character code) for a degree sign, or type 0024 for a dollar sign.

To change the appearance of quotes in Word , go to File > Options > Proofing > AutoCorrect Options . Choose AutoFormat As You Type . In the Replace As You Type section, select or clear the Straight quotes with smart quotes checkbox to turn smart quotes on or off.

When you use quotation marks in a search engine , you'll find more specific results. For example, if you want to search for John Joseph Smith, type in "John Joseph Smith" with quotations; your results will include all three parts of the name, back to back. You can also use quotation marks to specify dates, such as "Los Angeles 1991."

Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day

• Changing the Appearance of Quotation Marks in Microsoft Word
• The 17 Best Wear OS Apps of 2024
• The 50 Best Selfie Captions of 2024
• How to Delete Your Uber Eats Account
• Proper Formatting of Song Titles in Written Documents
• 6 Best Free Typing Games for Kids and Adults
• Our 14 Favorite Free Spyware Removal Tools for 2024
• How to View and Type Emojis on a Computer
• The 5 Best Geocaching Apps
• How to Type Symbols and Characters in Windows and macOS
• 12 of Our Favorite Free Typing Lessons for All Ages
• What Does In-App Purchase Mean?
• 13 of Our Favorite Free PDF Editors (August 2024)
• How to Type a Grave Accent Mark on Any Keyboard
• How to Type Characters With Umlaut Marks
• 32 Free Backup Software Tools: Ranked and Reviewed

How to Use Quotation Marks (and the Difference between Single vs. Double Quotes) 

This content may contain affiliate links. If you purchase through these links I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. However, I only recommend products or services that I genuinely like and trust.

Do you know how to use quotation marks correctly?

What is the difference between single quotes vs. double quotes?

Can you use quotation marks for emphasis?

Speech marks trip some people up because how you use them can depend on where your audience is based. They are used differently in British English vs. American English. 

I explain how to use quotation marks below, how they are often misused, and the difference between single and double quotation marks. 

(Please note that I used The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) as my reference guide unless otherwise noted.)

Table of Contents

What are quotation marks?

Quotation marks are used to mark the beginning and the end of dialogue or a direct quotation . They are used with some titles such as a chapter of a book or an individual TV episode. They can also be used to indicate irony or an unusual meaning . 

Quotation marks are also known as speech marks, or in British English, inverted commas. They always come in pairs. Every open quotation mark requires a closing one. 

What do quotation marks look like?

There are two types of quotation marks: single (‘ ’) and double (“ ”). Which one you use depends on  which style guide you follow.

Directional quotation marks (sometimes called “smart” or “curly”) should be used in published work as opposed to the unidirectional mark that can sometimes appear (“). 

Where can you find the single and double quote symbols on a keyboard? 

You’ll find them on the apostrophe/quotation mark key to the left of the enter/return key. 

To get the double quotation marks symbol, hold down the shift key and press the apostrophe/quotation mark key to the left of the enter/return key.

If you want to use the numeric codes, you can press and hold the alt key, then type the four-digit character code on the numeric keypad.

Single quotation marks or apostrophe:  

Use ALT+0145 for the left single quotation mark or apostrophe. 

Use ALT+0146 for the right single quotation mark or apostrophe.

Double quotation marks:

Use ALT+0147 for the left double quotation marks.

Use ALT+0148 for the right double quotation marks.

What is the difference between single and double quotation marks?  

The most notable difference between single and double quotation marks is that they are used differently in British English vs. American English. 

If you are writing in American English, you will use double quotation marks the majority of the time with one exception that I’ll outline below. 

If you are writing in British English, you will use single quotation marks the majority of the time. However, some publications like certain newspapers use double quotation marks for quotes. 

What are double quotation marks used for?

There are only three main rules or uses for double quotation marks. 

Use quotation marks for dialogue or direct quotations

Quotation marks are used with direct quotes; that is, the exact words a person said or wrote. 

Peter said, “I have every intention of doing some exercise today.”

“Yeah, right,” said Jack. “I’ll believe it when I see it!”

Longer quotations that are broken into paragraphs are treated as follows: use opening quotation marks at the beginning of each new paragraph but only use a closing quotation mark after the very last word of the entire quotation. 

Use quotation marks for titles of certain works

Quotation marks should be used with the following title types:

• Book chapter titles
• Individual episodes of TV or radio shows 
• Articles in periodicals
• Individual pages of websites
• Individual blog posts
• Unpublished lectures or speeches

I used to be able to recite every single word of the poem “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat.”

My favorite episode of Friends is “The One with the Embryos.”

Note that the title of the TV show is italicized rather than placed in quotes. 

Use quotation marks to indicate irony or an unusual meaning

Quotation marks can be used to indicate slang, irony, and unusual meaning where the author wants to signify that the word or phrase in question is being used in a questionable manner. 

Her mother told her her unemployed boyfriend was a real “catch.”

The politician listened to their woes to show them he “cares.”

Can you use quotation marks for emphasis? CMOS doesn’t recommend using quotation marks for emphasis, recommending the use of italics instead. 

Some style guides recommend setting words discussed as words in quotation marks; however, CMOS recommends italics instead. 

What are single quotation marks used for?

Single quotes only have one function in American English: to indicate a quotation within a quotation. 

Use single quotes to indicate a quotation within a quotation

Single quotation marks are used for a quotation within a quotation. In American English, the outside quotation marks are double quotation marks, and the inner quotation marks are single. 

“ ‘Someone Like You’ is my favorite song from Adele’s 21 album,” said Catherine.

In British English, you would reverse the order of the quotation marks; that is, the outside quotation marks will be single, and the inner quotation marks will be double.

Example:  

‘ “Someone Like You” is my favorite song from Adele’s 21 album,’ said Catherine.

It can be difficult to see a single quotation mark when it’s followed by a double quote, so typesetters often add a thin space between the two. 

Related content:

How to Use an Ellipsis: Chicago vs. AP Style

En Dash vs. Em Dash: When and How to Use Them

How to Use an Apostrophe (and Mistakes You Need to Avoid)

Colon vs. Semicolon: When and How to Use Them

How to Use Hyphens in Writing

How to Use Commas (and Mistakes to Avoid)

15 Essential Reference Books for New Proofreaders

How should quotation marks be punctuated?

You probably have some questions about how to treat quotation marks in relation to other punctuation.

Do periods go inside quotation marks?

When should punctuation be outside of quotation marks?

It varies depending on the punctuation mark. Some punctuation marks go inside the quotation marks and some remain outside. 

Here’s the breakdown:

Periods and commas always go inside closing quotation marks, regardless of whether double or single quotes are used.

Question marks and exclamation points should be placed outside quotation marks unless they’re part of the quoted sentence.

Colons, semicolons, and dashes go outside closing quotation marks.

Avoid using unnecessary quotation marks

Many people, especially on social media, use quotation marks on words they want to emphasize. If you want to emphasize a word, it would be better to use italics or bold. 

Misused quotation marks can produce some hilarious sentences. 

“Congratulations” on the birth of your new baby!

Do they not really mean congratulations?

Congratulations on the birth of your new “baby”!

What are they implying? That you gave birth to a puppy or an alien?

We sell “fat-free” cookies here!

So they do have fat in them?

Employees “must” wash hands!

Eww! So they don’t really have to then?

Grammar Posts

That vs. Which

Less vs. Fewer

Home In vs. Hone In

Between vs. Among

Bring vs. Take

Different From vs. Different Than

Quotation marks quiz

Can you spot any quotation mark errors in the below sentences? (Based on the Chicago Manual of Style recommendations outlined in this blog post.)

Use the knowledge you’ve learned above and try not to peek at the answers below!

• “Thank you” for your generous gift. 
• Her favorite Wordsworth poem is “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud;” she reads it often.
• Anne said, “If you don’t get over here right now, I’m going to chase you”!
• “Are we there yet,” he asked?
• Mary asked, “Are you sure John said “There’s only room for the two of us””?

Want to Learn More about Tricky Punctuation Issues?

Are you always worried that you’re not punctuating sentences correctly? Or you want to be a proofreader, but you’re worried your punctuation skills aren’t up to scratch? We all learned how to use commas, semicolons, etc. once upon a time, but information doesn’t always stick that well, and sometimes we hold on to incorrect information!

My Punctuation 101 e-book and workbook combo will help you refresh your memory of punctuation rules, learn the mistakes you need to avoid making, and polish your punctuation skills so you can wow your readers and clients.

It includes tons of example sentences so you can see the punctuation marks in action AND 150 quiz questions to help you retain that knowledge forever.

Further Reading

• The Chicago Manual of Style
• New Oxford Style Manual
• The Associated Press Stylebook
• Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary
• The Best Punctuation Book, Period

Quotation marks quiz answers

• Thank you for your generous gift. (Quotation marks aren’t necessary here.)
• Her favorite Wordsworth poem is “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud ”; she reads it often. (Semicolons go outside closing quotation marks)
• Anne said, “If you don’t get over here right now, I’m going to chase you !” (The exclamation mark is part of the quoted sentence, so it goes inside the quotes.)
• “Are we there yet ?” he asked. (The question mark is part of the quoted sentence, so it goes inside the quotes.)
• Mary asked, “Are you sure John said ‘There’s only room for the two of us’? ” (This is a quote inside a quote, so use single quotes around the inner quote.)

Using Quotation Marks

The rules for using quotation marks.

Table of Contents

Four Ways to Use Quotation Marks

Using quotation marks explained in detail, (1) using quotation marks for previously spoken or written words, (2) using quotation marks for the names of ships, books, and plays, (3) using quotation marks to signify so-called or alleged, (4) using quotation marks to show a word refers to the word itself, why quotation marks are important.

(1) To identify previously spoken or written words.

(2) To highlight the name of things like ships, books, and plays.

(3) To signify so-called or alleged.

(4) To show that a word refers to the word itself not the word's meaning.

(Issue 1) Being inconsistent with single or double quotation marks.

(Issue 2) Using quotation marks with reported speech

(issue 3) being unsure whether to use a comma or a colon before a quotation..

(Rule 1) Use a colon if the introduction is an independent clause.

• New York gang members all advise the following: "Don't run from fat cops. They shoot earlier."

(Rule 2) You can use a colon if the quotation is a complete sentence.

• The orders state: "In case of fire, exit the building before tweeting about it."

(Rule 3) Use a comma if the introduction is not an independent clause.

• Before each shot, the keeper said aloud, "bum, belly, beak, bang."
• Peering over his glasses, he said, "Never test the depth of a river with both feet."

(Rule 4) You can only use a comma after a quotation.

• "Always give 100%, unless you're donating blood", he would always say.

(Rule 5) Don't use any punctuation if the quotation is not introduced.

• I believe there really is, "no place like home."
• I would hate to see the worst if this is the, "best skiing resort in France".

(Issue 4) Being unsure whether to place punctuation inside or outside the quotation.

(Issue 5) Using quotation marks for emphasis.

• Nest single quotation marks within doubles.
• The instructions say: "Shout 'Yahtzee' loudly."
• Don't put reported speech in quotation marks.

Two Points about Editing Quotations

This page was written by Craig Shrives .

You might also like...

Help us improve....

Was something wrong with this page?

Use #gm to find us quicker .

Create a QR code for this, or any, page.

mailing list

grammar forum

teachers' zone

Confirmatory test.

This test is printable and sendable

expand to full page

show as slides

download as .doc

print as handout

send as homework

display QR code

Home » Tech Tips » Shortcuts » Keyboard Shortcuts for 15+ Quotation Mark Symbols

Keyboard Shortcuts for 15+ Quotation Mark Symbols

People generally refer double quotation mark shortly as quotation mark while single quote is referred as apostrophe. On a standard English keyboard, double and single quotes appears on a same key. You need to press shift to type double quotes. However, most of the documents will convert neutral quote into a curly smart quote format. Hence, ensure to have appropriate settings in the documents to use proper punctuation . In addition to single and double quotes, there are more than 15 different quote symbols available. Good thing is that you can insert all these symbols using keyboard shortcuts in Windows and Mac.

Shortcuts Summary for Neutral Quotation Mark

Before we explain the shortcuts for other quotation symbols, here is a summary of the neutral quote.

The quotation mark may looks like curly on the browser, however neutral or straight quotation mark will look like straight on plain text documents. Also, prime symbols are different than the quote though it looks similar.

Shortcuts for Other Quotation Mark Symbols

There are many different types of quotation marks in Unicode general punctuation block. Here are the keyboard shortcuts for Mac and Windows for all types of quotes. On Mac, ensure to use Unicode Hex Input and on Windows use number pad for typing numbers.

Typing Neutral Quote on Windows

• Use alt key with 0034 to type neutral quotation mark in Word and other Windows based documents.
• Alternatively, you can use 0022 and alt X keys to type neutral quote only on Word documents.
• Whenever you type the neutral quotation mark, Word will automatically convert it into a smart quote in curly format. However, you can follow the below instructions to stop this auto correction .

Convert Curly Quote to Neutral or Straight Quote

• Launch Word and open any document.
• Go to “Files > Options” menu.
• Click on “AutoCorrect options…” button under “Proofing” section.
• Go to “AutoFormat As you Type” tab.
• Look under the heading “Replace as you type”.
• Disable “Straight quotes” with “smart quotes” option.

If you are using content management systems like WordPress, learn more on disabling curly quotes in WordPress .

Typing Neutral Quotes on Mac

• On Mac, first change the input type to Unicode Hex Input and then use option key with 0022 to type neutral code. You can change the input method back to ABC from the option on the top menu bar.
• Alternatively, launch Character Viewer by pressing control + command + space and search for the quotation mark under punctuation tab.

Similar to Microsoft Word, Pages app on Mac also will convert the neutral quote to smart quote. Follow the instructions in this article to disable this option in Pages app.

Typing Neutral Quote in Web Documents

It is a challenging task to type double quotation mark in web documents like HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Making a small mistake in the quotation symbol will break the entire code.

• You can use the entity name " directly to insert the symbol. Otherwise, use decimal or hexadecimal codes in the below format.
• You can also use hexadecimal code on CSS and JavaScript as an escape string.

Other Names for Quotation Mark

• Double quotes
• Quotation mark
• Straight quotes

Example of Usage

Unlike curly quotes, neutral double quote has single representation for opening and closing mark.

• He said, “stop it”.
• Straight double quote is used in many programming language to accommodate the value of the variable like A = “test”.

About Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WebNots are team of experts who love to build websites, find tech hacks and share the learning with community.

You also might be interested in

How to Make Keycap Emoji Symbols with Keyboard?

Keycaps are symbols with a text or number on a[...]

How to Use Text Predictions in Windows 11 / 10?

Text predictions is the artificial intelligence feature in Windows that[...]

Keyboard Shortcuts for Korean Won Symbol (₩)

Won (₩) is the official currency symbol of Korea. Though[...]

TOP ALT CODE SHORTCUTS

• How to Use Alt Code Shortcuts?
• 600+ Windows Alt Codes for Symbols
• Alt Code for Emojis, Smileys and Emoticons
• Alt Code for Communication Symbols
• Alt Code for Currency Symbols
• Alt Code Keyboard Shortcuts for Encircled Numbers
• Alt Code Shortcuts for Encircled Letters
• Alt Code Shortcuts for Sports and Games Symbols

SHORTCUTS FOR MAC AND IPHONE

• Alt Key Shortcuts for macOS
• macOS Keyboard Shortcuts
• Create Keyboard Shortcuts in macOS
• 15 iPhone Keyboard Shortcuts [and Create Your Own]
• Shortcuts for Emojis in iOS

ESSENTIAL ALT CODE SHORTCUTS

• Alt Code Shortcuts for Weather Symbols
• Alt Code Shortcuts for Music Symbols
• Alt Key Shortcuts for Transportation and Map Symbols
• Alt Code Shortcuts for Animals
• Alt Code Shortcuts for Time and Clock Emoji Symbols
• Alt Code Shortcuts for Hands
• Alt Code Shortcuts for Arrows
• Alt Code Shortcuts for Zodiac Symbols
• Alt Code Shortcuts for Food and Drink Emoji
• Alt Code Shortcuts for Math Symbols
• Alt Code Shortcuts for Computer and User Interface Symbols

GOOGLE AND CHROME SHORTCUTS

• Symbol Shortcuts for Google Search
• Google Chrome Shortcuts
• Google Chrome URL Commands
• I’m Feeling Lucky Google Search Shortcuts

Alt Code Shortcuts for Shapes

• Alt Code Shortcuts for Squares
• Alt Code Shortcuts for Circles
• Alt Code Shortcuts for Triangles
• Alt Code Shortcuts for Hearts
• Alt Code Shortcuts for Stars

Shortcuts PDF Guides

• Windows Symbols Shortcuts
• Emoji Keyboard Shortcuts
• Google Search Shortcuts Guide

© 2024 · WebNots · All Rights Reserved.

Type and press Enter to search

Straight quotes are the two generic ver­ti­cal quo­ta­tion marks lo­cated near the re­turn key: the straight sin­gle quote ( ' ) and the straight dou­ble quote ( " ).

Curly quotes are the quo­ta­tion marks used in good ty­pog­ra­phy. There are four curly quote char­ac­ters: the open­ing sin­gle quote ( ‘ ), the clos­ing sin­gle quote ( ’ ), the open­ing dou­ble quote ( “ ), and the clos­ing dou­ble quote ( ” ).

Straight quotes are a type­writer habit . In tra­di­tional print­ing, all quo­ta­tion marks were curly. But type­writer char­ac­ter sets were lim­ited by me­chan­i­cal con­straints and phys­i­cal space. By re­plac­ing the curly open­ing and clos­ing quotes with am­bidex­trous straight quotes, two slots be­came avail­able for other characters.

Word proces­sors are not lim­ited in this way. You can al­ways get curly quotes. Com­pared to straight quotes, curly quotes are more leg­i­ble on the page and match the other char­ac­ters bet­ter. There­fore, straight quotes should never, ever ap­pear in your documents.

For­tu­nately, avoid­ing straight quotes is easy: use your word proces­sor’s smart-quote fea­ture, which will sub­sti­tute curly quotes au­to­mat­i­cally. Smart quotes are typ­i­cally turned on by default.

Word File → Options → Proofing → AutoCorrect Options → AutoFormat As You Type → check or uncheck "Straight Quotes" with “ Smart Quotes”

Mac OS Word Word → Preferences → AutoCorrect → AutoFormat As You Type → check or uncheck "Straight Quotation Marks" with “ Smart Quotation Marks”

Pages Edit → Substitutions → check or uncheck Smart Quotes

Smart-quote sub­sti­tu­tion has been built into word proces­sors for nearly 30 years. That’s why straight quotes are one of the most griev­ous and in­ept ty­po­graphic errors.

When you paste or im­port text with straight quotes in it, your word proces­sor may not al­ways con­vert the straight quotes prop­erly. Fix  them.

Use the search-and-re­place func­tion to search for all in­stances of the straight sin­gle quote ( ' ) and re­place it with the same char­ac­ter—a straight sin­gle quote ( ' ).

Use the search-and-re­place func­tion to search for all in­stances of the straight dou­ble quote ( " ) and re­place it with the same char­ac­ter—a straight dou­ble quote ( " ).

Be­fore you say “that won’t do any­thing”, try it. When your word proces­sor re­places each quo­ta­tion mark, it also per­forms the straight-to-curly conversion.

HTML & CSS have no au­to­matic fa­cil­ity for con­vert­ing straight quotes to curly. But in­sert­ing these char­ac­ters us­ing HTML es­cape codes is dreary.

If you use a CMS like Word­Press, plu­g­ins are avail­able that han­dle this au­to­mat­i­cally. There are also JavaScript-based con­vert­ers that work in the browser. If you’re tempted to write your own straight-to-curly con­verter, re­con­sider—the good ones cover tricky edge cases that you’re apt to miss on your  own.

An­other op­tion is to use the lit­tle-known q tag, which au­to­mat­i­cally ap­pends curly quotes to the en­closed el­e­ments. So <q>Hello</q> ren­ders as Hello . Two caveats. First, a par­ent el­e­ment (like html ) must have a lang at­tribute (like lang="en" ) so the q tag knows what kind of curly quotes to use. Sec­ond, this change in markup re­moves the quote marks from the char­ac­ter stream, and doesn’t help with apos­tro­phes , so it may be a long drive for a short day at the beach.

Straight quotes are ac­cept­able in email. It’s hard to see the dif­fer­ence be­tween straight and curly quotes on screen at small sizes. And if you’re typ­ing with thumbs on a smart­phone, it can be ir­ra­tionally dif­fi­cult to in­sert  them.

Some older dig­i­tal doc­u­ments are stored with dou­ble quotes made of two sin­gle quotes ( ' ' ) or two grave ac­cents ( `` ). (The grave ac­cent , also some­times called a back­tick , is that char­ac­ter above the tab key you’ve never used.) These can be fixed by adapt­ing the search-and-re­place tech­nique de­scribed above.

Don’t use quo­ta­tion marks for em­pha­sis. Use bold or italic .

Quo­ta­tion marks are an area of vast ty­po­graphic di­ver­sity among other lan­guages—both the glyphs used and how they’re spaced. Now you know why quote-curl­ing al­go­rithms have to be smart.

Con­fi­den­tial to com­puter sci­en­tists and doc­u­men­ta­tion writ­ers: straight quotes and back­ticks in soft­ware code should never be con­verted to curly quotes. Those marks are, of course, part of the code syn­tax and must be re­pro­duced lit­er­ally. In par­tic­u­lar, though fans of La­TeX have of­ten writ­ten me to trum­pet its type­set­ting su­pe­ri­or­ity, I’ve never seen any La­TeX-cre­ated doc­u­men­ta­tion that’s got­ten this right.

Search form

• Highest rated
• Verb phrase generator
• Test your grammar

Punctuation in direct speech

We use inverted commas (also called quotation marks, quotes or speech marks) to indicate direct speech. Double quotes (") are preferred in American English, while single quotes (') are more common in British English:

" I'm coming home late tonight, " she said. (American English) ' I'm coming home late tonight, ' she said. (British English)

If we quote within direct speech, we use the other style for the embedded quotation:

"She said, ' I'm coming home late tonight ', " recalled Jim. (American English) 'She said, " I'm coming home late tonight ", ' recalled Jim. (British English)

As can be seen in the examples above, a comma ( , ) is used at the end of the quotation, before the closing speech mark.

A comma is also used before the quotation if we start the sentence with the reporting clause. In this case the terminal full stop (.) comes before the closing speech mark:

She added , "Don't expect me before 11 . "

If the quotation is a question or exclamation, the terminal marks ( ? and ! ) also come before the closing speech marks:

"Hurry up ! " he shouted. She asked, "Am I late ? "

The quotation normally begins with a capital letter, except if it is interrupted by a reporting clause, in which case the first letter of the continuation is not capitalised:

" I 'm coming home late tonight," she said and added, " d on't expect me before 11."

Rate this page

Related topics.

For timeline diagrams, quotes and exercises, check out our e-book The Grammaring Guide to English Grammar

About | Copyright

Grammaring – A guide to English grammar | Copyright © 2009-2024

Understanding Quotation Marks (Rules, When to Use, Single, Double, Examples)

What are quotation marks? Quotation marks are known as quotes, inverted commas, talking marks, and speech marks. Many students of the English language don’t have a complete understanding of where and how to use quotation marks. Moreover, it’s important to know about the different types of quotation marks to use them appropriately when writing.

In this article, we’ll discuss quotation marks and their appropriate grammatical use.

What are quotation marks?

Quotation marks highlight a word, phrase, or sentence that is in some way different from the rest of the text. It could be a quotation from someone or some book, a proverb, maxim, word meaning, name, or anything else that requires special attention from the readers.

We also use quotation marks to ironically talk about something.

Consider the following examples:

• My school canteen serves “delicious” food
• He is a “progressive” in his beliefs

In the above sentences, the words ‘delicious’ and ‘progressive’ are meant to express the opposite of what they mean. The food in the school canteen is actually terrible, and the person’s beliefs aren’t really progressive. We generally need a context to understand when quotation marks are being used ironically.

Different quotation marks are used in different contexts. Let’s learn more about the variations of quotation marks.

Double and single quotation marks

• Double quotation marks: “”
• Single quotation marks: ‘Single’

When to use double quotation marks and when to use single quotation marks? The answer depends largely on which variation of English we are talking about. Single quotes are more common in British and Australian English. On the other hand, double quotation marks are more frequent in American and Canadian English.

When writing for a publication or journal, follow the in-house guidelines on using quotation marks. Some prefer double quotations, while others go for single quotation marks.

Consistency is often more important than the type of quotation mark used. When we primarily use double quotation marks, we don’t throw in single quotation marks for a few words and phrases – and vice versa .

The first time I went to France, I had this dish called “Bœuf bourguignon”. In English, we call it ‘beef Burgundy’. [Wrong]

I was reading ‘Don Quixote’. Sorry to say, but I hardly ‘enjoyed’ it. [Correct]

When unsure about using single or double quotation marks , stick to either and use them consistently.

Quotation marks inside quotation marks

Consider the following example:

• My teacher said, “Focus on ‘verbs’, ‘adjectives’, and ‘pronouns’ for the upcoming test.”
• My teacher said, ‘Focus on “verbs”, “adjectives”, and “pronouns” for the upcoming test.’

Both the above sentences are examples of correctly using quotation marks inside quotation marks. Choose either double or single quotation marks for the main sentence within quotes. As long as the main sentence is in single quotation marks, use double quotation marks for the words and phrases within it – and vice versa.

Be consistent with the use of quotation marks within quotation marks in a piece of writing. When following the [double quotes] (single quotes) [double quotes] template, use it consistently across the writing. Don’t switch to the [single quotes] (double quotes) [single quotes] template in the middle of the writing.

Block quotes

When quoting multiple lines from a person, book, article, or report, the convention is to use block quotes instead of quotation marks. Writing styles like Harvard, APA, MLA, and Chicago APSA have specific rules on using block quotes. Typically, block quotes are indented to the right and follow a colon (:). Here’s an example of using block quotes in writing:

The world is going through a climate crisis , according to experts from around the world. According to the latest Climate Change Report, we have serious issues to tackle in the near future:

There has been a rapid growth in carbon emission rates over the last decade. If governments and industrialists from developed countries don’t take active initiatives in combatting this phenomenon, we can expect serious catastrophes by the year 2050.

By changing the alignment of the text, it becomes clear that this section of article is taken from another source, which is the Climate Change Report in this case. Block quotes are common in books, long-form articles, research papers, and even news reports.

In digital mediums, extracts from other writing/articles would often be italicized. But it’s not mandatory, especially when following the guidelines of a writing style like APA, MLA, or Harvard. Consistency is crucial for block quotes as well.

Using quotation marks as literary tools

Apart from serving as a utility in writing, quotation marks are also literary tools for writers. They are frequently used to highlight ironic remarks.

• My friend took a 2-hour masterclass on making money. Now he’s a “financial expert”.
• Apparently, what we said caused a lot of “pain” and “discomfort”.
• I saw a movie last night and thought it was really “creative”.

In the above sentences, the words and phrases inside the quotation marks express the opposite of what they mean. Irony is a figure of speech where we mean the opposite of what we say.

It’s possible to use irony without quotation marks, but highlighting the ironic words makes it easier for the reader to understand the irony.

Quotation marks also highlight puns. For the uninitiated, a pun is a play on the different possible meanings of the same word.

Here are a few examples of using quotation marks for puns:

• You should trust a person who sells glue. They generally “stick” to their words.
• Though they are both musicians, they fail to strike a “chord”.
• The days in a calendar are “numbered”.

The above three sentences play on the different meanings of the same words – stick, chord, and numbered. We can use quotation marks to highlight the wordplay and grab the readers’ attention.

However, many writers choose to not put their puns and wordplay into quotation marks for the sake of subtlety and flow.

As always, when using quotation marks to highlight puns, use single or double quotation marks consistently throughout the reference (don’t mix and match quotation marks).

Quotation marks for titles of works

We use quotation marks for titles of literary works like poems, short stories, novels, movies, documentaries, etc. There are some conventions regarding how to use quotation marks for literary works. Let’s learn more about it.

Shorter works like poems, short stories, episodes

We generally put shorter literary works inside quotation marks.

• I was reading Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale” yesterday.
• “The Last Leaf” is an amazing short story by O Henry.
• “The Last One” is the final episode of Friends .

In both of the above examples, we have put smaller pieces of literary works inside quotation marks. “The Last Leaf” is a short story while “Ode to a Nightingale” is a poem. Since these literary works are shorter in length than a novel or movie, the convention is to put these names inside quotation marks.

Longer works like novels, movies, books, documentaries

The convention for mentioning longer literary works is to italicize them. Most modern writing guides like MLA, APA, and Harvard ask writers to italicize longer works.

Here are some examples:

• My favorite movie is Nolan’s Inception.
• Lyrical Ballads is widely considered the most significant collection of romantic poems.
• “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is a poem from the Lyrical Ballads .
• I have only read “The Fellowship of the Ring” from Lord of the Rings

Handwritten text

What will you do when you don’t have the option of italicizing the name of a book or movie? For example, how do we write the name of a longer work when writing an exam on a sheet of paper?

In these situations, here are a few things we can do:

• Underline the name of the work. For example, write “Lyrical Ballads is widely considered the most significant collection of romantic poems”.
• Underline the name and also put it inside quotation marks – “Lyrical Ballads” is widely considered the most significant collection of romantic poems.

What if we have to write about both shorter and longer literary works in a handwritten text?

In these cases, use a combination of quotation marks and underline, for example:

• “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is a poem from the Lyrical Ballads.
• ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ is a poem from the “Lyrical Ballads”.

As always, be consistent with the adopted method. When underlining the names of major works, keep underlining all the names and don’t put them inside quotation marks in some cases. When we are putting the names inside quotation marks and also underlining them, we do the same for every name in a particular text.

Since these guidelines vary from one writing style to another, the best option is to refer to the official writing guide and style that is supposed to be followed.

Punctuation and quotation marks

There’s a lot of confusion regarding how to use punctuation inside quotation marks, particularly regarding where to put the full stop.

When quoting two or more sentences, the full stops will obviously be inside quotation marks.

Here are a few examples:

“My friend is a soldier. He is now serving in Afghanistan.”

“Look! What a beautiful sight!”

The main confusion here is where to put the final full stop – inside our outside quotation marks.

In American English, the full stops are generally inside quotation marks. For example:

“I am going to study.”

“Mary was wearing a beautiful dress.”

In British English, the final full stops are always outside quotation marks.

For example:

“I am going to study”.

“Mary was wearing a beautiful dress”.

When it comes to question and exclamation marks, the position of the punctuation marks depends on the phrase inside the quotation marks.

• She asked, “Do you want to have a cup of coffee?”
• Have you seen “The Wolf of Wall Street”?
• Mary exclaimed, “This can’t be true!”
• John was surprised that she had never heard of “Once upon a Time in Hollywood”!

Remember these basic rules on punctuation marks and quotation marks to never get their usage wrong.

Straight quotes vs. curly quotes

Both straight quotes and curly (smart) quotes are correct. 

Straight quotes look like this: “straight quotes”

Curly quotes look like this: “curly quotes”

Curly/smart quotes are automatically added in all modern word processing software. It’s more of an aesthetic element than a grammatical nuance. The important thing here is to be consistent with the type of quotes used in an article. Use either curly or straight quotes throughout the article/writing.

Quotation marks while speaking

Until now, we only discussed the use of quotation marks in writing. But what about speaking — be it a casual conversation or a narration? The answer is simple.

We say one of these two things:

• Quote-unquote
• And I quote
• He is a quote-unquote hardworking person, but in reality, he exploits the vulnerabilities of other people.
• John said, and I quote, the world can only be a better place if we start helping each other.

Sometimes the speaker would say “end of quote” to signify where the quote ends, and sometimes it’s implied.

Other punctuation marks

Here are the other punctuation marks to be aware of:

The main types of quotation marks are:

• Single quotes: ‘single quotes’
• Double quotes: “double quotes”
• Straight quotes: “straight quotes”
• Curly/smart quotes: “double quotes”

Either say:

• Quote-unquote, for example, John is a quote-unquote cruel person but he has a heart of gold .
• And I quote, for example, John said, and I quote, the world is going through an unprecedented crisis right now.

When typing in a word processor, always italicize the names of books, movies, and other longer literary texts. When writing on a sheet of paper, underline the titles of longer literary works. These conventions also depend on specific citation guides like MLA, APA, and Harvard.

Th double quotes and single quotes ” ” or ‘ ‘ are used at beginning and the end of a direction quotation. For direct quotations, we would typically use double quotes. Use one of the two, according to which type of sentence you have. Although, use the same type throughout your writing.

A closing quotation mark (or final quotation mark) is identified as ”, it has a slight lean to the right side (visually).

• Quotation Marks: When to Use Single or Double Quotes | Scribendi
• Curly quotes and straight quotes: a quick guide – Writer
• Quotation marks in English – Wikipedia
• Quotation Marks “” | Writing | EnglishClub
• Quotation Marks: How To Use Them Correctly (With Examples) | Grammarly
• How to Block Quote | Length, Format and Examples (scribbr.com)
• Examples of Puns: Exploring What They Are and Different Types (yourdictionary.com)

Inside this article

Fact checked: Content is rigorously reviewed by a team of qualified and experienced fact checkers. Fact checkers review articles for factual accuracy, relevance, and timeliness. Learn more.

About the author

Dalia Y.: Dalia is an English Major and linguistics expert with an additional degree in Psychology. Dalia has featured articles on Forbes, Inc, Fast Company, Grammarly, and many more. She covers English, ESL, and all things grammar on GrammarBrain.

Core lessons

• Abstract Noun
• Accusative Case
• Active Sentence
• Alliteration
• Adjective Clause
• Adjective Phrase
• Adverbial Clause
• Appositive Phrase
• Body Paragraph
• Compound Adjective
• Complex Sentence
• Compound Words
• Compound Predicate
• Common Noun
• Comparative Adjective
• Comparative and Superlative
• Compound Noun
• Compound Subject
• Compound Sentence
• Copular Verb
• Collective Noun
• Colloquialism
• Conciseness
• Conditional
• Concrete Noun
• Conjunction
• Conjugation
• Conditional Sentence
• Comma Splice
• Correlative Conjunction
• Coordinating Conjunction
• Coordinate Adjective
• Cumulative Adjective
• Dative Case
• Declarative Statement
• Direct Object Pronoun
• Direct Object
• Dangling Modifier
• Demonstrative Pronoun
• Demonstrative Adjective
• Direct Characterization
• Definite Article
• Doublespeak
• Equivocation Fallacy
• Future Perfect Progressive
• Future Simple
• Future Perfect Continuous
• Future Perfect
• First Conditional
• Gerund Phrase
• Genitive Case
• Helping Verb
• Irregular Adjective
• Irregular Verb
• Imperative Sentence
• Indefinite Article
• Intransitive Verb
• Introductory Phrase
• Indefinite Pronoun
• Indirect Characterization
• Interrogative Sentence
• Intensive Pronoun
• Inanimate Object
• Indefinite Tense
• Infinitive Phrase
• Interjection
• Intensifier
• Indicative Mood
• Juxtaposition
• Linking Verb
• Misplaced Modifier
• Nominative Case
• Noun Adjective
• Object Pronoun
• Object Complement
• Order of Adjectives
• Parallelism
• Prepositional Phrase
• Past Simple Tense
• Past Continuous Tense
• Past Perfect Tense
• Past Progressive Tense
• Present Simple Tense
• Present Perfect Tense
• Personal Pronoun
• Personification
• Persuasive Writing
• Parallel Structure
• Phrasal Verb
• Predicate Adjective
• Predicate Nominative
• Phonetic Language
• Plural Noun
• Punctuation
• Punctuation Marks
• Preposition
• Preposition of Place
• Parts of Speech
• Possessive Adjective
• Possessive Determiner
• Possessive Case
• Possessive Noun
• Proper Adjective
• Proper Noun
• Present Participle
• Quotation Marks
• Relative Pronoun
• Reflexive Pronoun
• Reciprocal Pronoun
• Subordinating Conjunction
• Simple Future Tense
• Stative Verb
• Subjunctive
• Subject Complement
• Subject of a Sentence
• Sentence Variety
• Second Conditional
• Superlative Adjective
• Slash Symbol
• Topic Sentence
• Types of Nouns
• Types of Sentences
• Uncountable Noun
• Vowels and Consonants

Popular lessons

Stay awhile. Your weekly dose of grammar and English fun.

The world's best online resource for learning English. Understand words, phrases, slang terms, and all other variations of the English language.

• Abbreviations
• Editorial Policy

How to Punctuate Dialogue – Rules & Examples

| Danielle McLeod

| Punctuation

Danielle McLeod

Danielle McLeod is a highly qualified secondary English Language Arts Instructor who brings a diverse educational background to her classroom. With degrees in science, English, and literacy, she has worked to create cross-curricular materials to bridge learning gaps and help students focus on effective writing and speech techniques. Currently working as a dual credit technical writing instructor at a Career and Technical Education Center, her curriculum development surrounds student focus on effective communication for future career choices.

I’m an avid reader, and I never think twice about the punctuation that makes dialog so easy to read, allowing you to flow from one conversation to the next. With so much exposure to the technique, you’d think it would be easy to reproduce – but nothing could be further from the truth.

Punctuating dialogue properly eludes even the most voracious reader. And, it’s truly no surprise since you must remember more than one rule concerning quotations, terminal marks, and comma use when all mashed together.

Knowing how to punctuate dialogue correctly is important to help develop your characters and make them more interesting to your reader. Take a look at our dialog writing tips to help you develop your storyline for a more exciting read.

The Importance of Well-Written Dialog

Writers depend upon dialog to help bring their characters to life and allow readers to form relationships with the story they are immersed in. Good dialog punctuation helps create flow and clarity, lends tone to the sentences being spoken, and creates connections between characters and the overall storyline.

Poorly constructed sentences that feel wooden and stiff are common mistakes writers make when new to the technique. But, with practice and knowledge of strong dialog sentence structure, it doesn’t take long for them to become more confident writers.

The Rules of Dialog Writing

To avoid errors in dialogue punctuation, you must keep some precise rules in mind.

A good story uses direct and indirect dialogue between characters and dialogue with narration to enhance the storyline. This creates lines of text that can quickly become confusing when punctuation or grammar is ignored or, worse yet – used incorrectly.

Review these ten rules for punctuating dialogue to help create captivating dialogue that draws your reader into an original storyline.

Rule #1: Direct Speech Requires Double Quotation Marks

If you are in the US, you use the double closing quotation marks to indicate spoken, direct dialogue. This is the first step in punctuating dialogue correctly.

For example:

• “Mom, Sanna and I only went to the store, and we came right back!” exclaimed Sarah.
• Maxine wasn’t so sure, asking, “If I spoke to Mr. Hooper, would he tell me he saw you there?”

British or Commonwealth English uses a single quotation mark, but both styles indicate the same thing.

This article focuses on the American English standard widely accepted by the Chicago Style Manual to avoid confusion.

Rule #2: Periods (and Other End Marks) Belong Inside Quotation Mark

Misplaced periods and other end marks are common mistakes when writing dialogue. Complete spoken sentences should always end with the end mark inside the quotation marks.

• She reviewed the essay, stating, “You’ll need to proofread for corrections.”
• She watched the light turn green and, glancing sideways, said, “What if we kept driving and just didn’t stop?”

Rule #3: Comma Placement is Dictated by Speaker Attribution

The majority of written dialogue is attributed to a speaker using dialogue tags. This helps a reader keep track of who is speaking, especially when back-and-forth dialog is used between two or more characters.

An attribute is a simple way to give credit to a speaker. These can be as simple as she said or he replied . They can also be more detailed, providing tone or behavioral hints, such as she rolled her eyes, leaned forward, and whispered .

When the attribute comes before the dialogue, place the comma outside the quotation marks.

• She exclaimed, “There is no way I will be involved with that plan.”
• He wasn’t impressed, looked her in the eyes, and stated, “You promised to take part in this all.”

When the attribute comes after dialogue, you place the comma inside the quotation marks.

• “I’m heading to the store,” Sarah told her mother.
• “Go straight there and back,” was the reply.

Rule #4: Always Begin New Sentences with a Capitalization

Dialogue dictates that new sentences always begin with capitalization, even when following an attribute. This may be slightly different than other rules of quotation use, but it is important to help highlight the speech of your characters.

• She turned to him smiling and spoke her thoughts aloud, “If I were to leave, what would you do?”

Do not capitalize dialog that follows an interrupting attribute.

• He smiled back, “I’d follow you,” he replied, “anywhere you go.”

Rule #5: Start a New Paragraph Each Time the Speaker Changes

One of the most important rules of organizing dialogue is to begin a new paragraph each time the speaker changes. This provides a visual of who is speaking and is especially important to avoid the overuse of attributes during back-and-forth dialogue.

To indicate a new paragraph, leave a space between each line.

“Why are you here so early?” asked the teacher, looking down on the little blond head riddled with cowlicks.

The student looked up at her, blinking, “I need to study for my test today, and our power was out at the house.”

“Oh no! Of course, you can study here. I was just going to make some coffee. Would you like some cocoa to help get focused?”

“Yes. Thank you!”

“No problem. You can study early anytime you need to. I’m almost always here by this time.” She walked into the lounge, shaking her head, knowing he wasn’t the only student that needed a warm, lighted place to start the day in.

Rule #6: Use Action Beats to Replace Dialogue Tags

Dialogue tags can become very monotonous in their use and take away from the tone of what is being said when overused. Consider using action beats that describe what the character is doing while they are speaking to help add detail and action to your dialogue.

Dialogue punctuation rules stay the same with action beats.

“Hmmmmm.” He rubbed his chin and glanced at the clock. “I’m just as confused as you are, but at the moment, I don’t have time to think about it.” He stood up, ushering the children towards the door. “Come back tomorrow when we can discuss this further.”

“But, tomorrow will be too late!” The children turned away from the door. “By then, she could be gone altogether!”

Rule #7: Avoid Closing Quotations Between Paragraphs of Speech

When a character speaks more than a few sentences in a row, you can split their extended speech up into multiple individual paragraphs. When you do this, you indicate to the reader the speech is not over by omitting the closing punctuation marks.

Still provide open quotation marks at the start of the new paragraph.

“It wasn’t difficult for me to find out what you all had been up to last night.” His mother looked them over, “I had the porch camera on, and it triggered the garage light. When I saw that come on, I knew somebody had to be coming in through the back to avoid waking me up. What you didn’t know was I was already awake.

“Although I didn’t say anything at the time, I checked with Mark’s mother this morning, and she let me know he had told her he was staying over here.” She wasn’t happy, and he knew he was in for it.

She continued on, “You told me you were staying at Mark’s house. So, of course, I wanted to know what you both were hiding from us.

“When I saw that you had the cellar door cracked open, I knew where you had to be keeping her.” She paused, “James, I told you we couldn’t afford to feed another dog, and now she’s down there with her puppies. What did you do that night? Go out to the tracks and carry them all back here thinking I would never notice?”

He nodded, “But, mom…” and looked up at her, “they would have died if we left them out there.”

Rule #8: Use Em-Dashes and Ellipses to Interrupt Speech

If you need to indicate an interruption in dialogue due to being cut off or a pause in speech, then you will use an em-dash or ellipses within the quotation marks.

“I know you care a lot about him, but — “

She interrupted, “You don’t understand that he’s just a friend!”

“— you aren’t going to camp with him this summer.” Her father finished.

“Listen, I just need to know what is going on…” she looked at her beseechingly.

Jen sighed, “I’ll explain it all one day. I just can’t right now.”

Rule #9: Use Single Quotes When Your Character is Quoting Someone or Something

If you are wondering how to use quotation marks within the dialogue to indicate a character directly quoting another, you need to use single quotation marks. A dialogue with quotes within it specifically highlights the thoughts or words of another person. 

“Tell me what the professor said was going to be on the test again.”

“He said the test would last 2 hours and to ‘read through the first two chapters, review all the vocabulary, and be able to explain the photosynthesis process.’”

Rule #10: Use Italics for Thoughts and Internal Monologues

Avoid using quotations for internal dialogue and monologues. Although, as an author, you can take artistic license and choose to use quotations, it is generally accepted to use italics in this manner if your text also includes spoken dialogue to avoid confusing the two. Just be sure to be consistent with their use.

The kitten sat at the window, eyes big and begging to be let inside.

Kimberly knew her mother would be mad, but, What she doesn’t find out won’t kill her , she thought as she opened the window.

Let’s Review

Writing dialog punctuation isn’t as tricky as it may seem at first as long as you follow these dialogue example rules. End marks, commas, and quotation marks in a dialog should be kept consistent in their use to provide clarity and flow to written conversation.

Always enclose dialog in double quotation marks, using single quotation marks to indicate a quote spoken by a character. End parks belong inside the quotations, while comma placement is determined by speaker attribution.

Grammarist is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. When you buy via the links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no cost to you.

2024 © Grammarist, a Found First Marketing company. All rights reserved.

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.

• Knowledge Base
• Language rules
• When to Use Quotation Marks (“”) | Rules & Examples

When to Use Quotation Marks ("") | Rules & Examples

Published on May 21, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on November 29, 2022 by Jack Caulfield.

Quotation marks (also known as quotes or inverted commas) are used to indicate direct speech and quotations.

In academic writing, you need to use quotation marks when you quote a source . This includes quotes from published works and primary data such as interviews . The exception is when you use a block quote, which should be set off and indented without quotation marks.

Whenever you quote someone else’s words, use a signal phrase to introduce it and integrate the source into your own text. Don’t rely on quotations to make your point for you.

Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text

Upload your document to correct all your mistakes in minutes

Table of contents

Single vs. double quotation marks, quotes within quotes, punctuation following quotations, quotation marks for source titles, indirect quotation, scare quotes, frequently asked questions about quotation marks.

There are two types of quotation marks: ‘single’ and “double.” Which one to choose generally depends on whether you are using US or UK English . The US convention is to use double quotation marks, while the UK convention is usually to use single quotation marks.

Double quotation marks can also be acceptable in UK English, provided you are consistent throughout the text. APA Style requires double quotations.

Receive feedback on language, structure, and formatting

Professional editors proofread and edit your paper by focusing on:

• Academic style
• Vague sentences
• Style consistency

See an example

When your quotations are nested (i.e., a quote appears inside another quote), you should use the opposite style of quotation marks for the nested quotation.

US and UK English also differ on where to place punctuation within quotation marks.

• In US English,  commas and periods that follow a quote are placed within the quotation marks.
• In UK English, all punctuation marks are placed outside the quotation marks, except when they are part of the original quotation.

In all variants of English, a question mark appears inside the quotation marks when the person quoted was asking a question, but outside when it’s you asking the question.

• Smith asks, “How long can this situation continue?”
• How many participants reported their satisfaction as “high”?

Note that when you include a parenthetical citation after a quote, the punctuation mark always comes after the citation (except with block quotes ).

• Solis described the situation as “precarious” (2022, p. 16).

Some source titles (e.g., the title of a journal article) should be presented in quotation marks in your text. Others are italicized instead (or occasionally written in plain text).

The rules for how to format different source titles are largely the same across citation styles, though some details differ. The key principles apply in all the main styles:

• Use italics for sources that stand alone
• Use quotation marks for sources that are part of another source

Some examples are shown below, with the proper formatting:

• The Routledge Companion to Critical Theory [book]
• “Poststructuralism” [book chapter]
• Philosophy, Psychiatry & Psychology [journal]
• “What Is Personality Disorder?” [journal article]
• Friends [TV series]
• “The One Where Rachel Quits” [TV episode]

Check for common mistakes

Use the best grammar checker available to check for common mistakes in your text.

Fix mistakes for free

Indirect quotation means reporting what someone said without using exactly the same words they did.

It’s a lot like paraphrasing , except that you’re only changing the words you need to in order to fit the statement into your new sentence grammatically. For example, changing the pronouns or the verb tense .

Indirect quotation is more common in everyday speech, but it can occur in academic writing too. When it does, keep in mind that you should only use quotation marks around words taken directly from the original speaker or author.

• One participant stated that “he found the exercises frustrating.”
• One participant stated that he found the exercises frustrating.
• One participant described the exercises as “frustrating.”

“Scare quotes” are quotation marks used around words that are not a direct quotation from a specific source. They are used to signal that a term is being used in an unusual or ironic way, that it is borrowed from someone else, or that the writer is skeptical about the term.

• Many politicians have blamed recent electoral trends on the rise of “fake news.”

While scare quotes have their uses in academic writing (e.g., when referring to controversial terms), they should only be used with good reason. Inappropriate use of scare quotes creates ambiguity.

• The institution organized a fundraiser in support of “underprivileged children.”
• Scientists argue that “global warming” is accelerating due to greenhouse gas emissions.
• The “Brexit” negotiations are still ongoing.

In these examples, the words within scare quotes are widely accepted terms with clear meanings that can’t be attributed to a specific person or source. Using quotation marks implies skepticism about the concepts in question.

The use of single and double quotation marks when quoting differs between US and UK English . In US English, you must use double quotation marks. Single quotation marks are used for quotes within quotes.

In UK English, it’s most common to use single quotation marks, with double quotation marks for quotes within quotes, although the other way around is acceptable too.

A quote is an exact copy of someone else’s words, usually enclosed in quotation marks and credited to the original author or speaker.

If you’re quoting from a text that paraphrases or summarizes other sources and cites them in parentheses , APA and Chicago both recommend retaining the citations as part of the quote. However, MLA recommends omitting citations within a quote:

• APA: Smith states that “the literature on this topic (Jones, 2015; Sill, 2019; Paulson, 2020) shows no clear consensus” (Smith, 2019, p. 4).
• MLA: Smith states that “the literature on this topic shows no clear consensus” (Smith, 2019, p. 4).

Footnote or endnote numbers that appear within quoted text should be omitted in all styles.

If you want to cite an indirect source (one you’ve only seen quoted in another source), either locate the original source or use the phrase “as cited in” in your citation.

Quotes within quotes are punctuated differently to distinguish them from the surrounding quote .

• If you use double quotation marks for quotes, use single quotation marks for quotes within quotes.
• If you use single quotation marks for quotes (e.g., in UK English ), use double quotation marks for quotes within quotes.

Make sure to close both sets of quotes!

Indirect quotation means reporting what someone said (or wrote) but not using their exact words. It’s similar to paraphrasing , but it only involves changing enough words to fit the statement into your sentence grammatically (e.g., changing the tense or the pronouns ).

Since some of the words have changed, indirect quotations are not enclosed in quotation marks .

Sources in this article

We strongly encourage students to use sources in their work. You can cite our article (APA Style) or take a deep dive into the articles below.

McCombes, S. (2022, November 29). When to Use Quotation Marks ("") | Rules & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved August 26, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/language-rules/quotation-marks/

Butterfield, J. (Ed.). (2015).  Fowler’s dictionary of modern English usage  (4th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Garner, B. A. (2016).  Garner’s modern English usage (4th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Is this article helpful?

Shona McCombes

Other students also liked, how to quote | citing quotes in apa, mla & chicago, how to block quote | length, format and examples, "i thought ai proofreading was useless but..".

I've been using Scribbr for years now and I know it's a service that won't disappoint. It does a good job spotting mistakes”

• Rules/Help/FAQ Help/FAQ
• Members Current visitors
• Interface Language

Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.

Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.

• French and English Grammar / Grammaire française et anglaise

FR/EN: guillemets (« ») / quotation marks (“ ”) - usage & punctuation

• Thread starter Js100
• Start date Oct 16, 2015
• Oct 16, 2015

Are there any differences in French Quotations («») and English quotation("") grammatically? If so what are they?  

Maître Capello

Mod et ratures.

The main usage of quotation marks is the same in both languages: quoting or emphasizing words or phrases. The typography rules are however a bit different. When using French guillemets, you should add an (ideally thin) non-breaking space on either side of the quoted text (e.g., « Bonjour ! » ), whereas no spaces are used with English quotation marks (e.g., “Hello!” ). In French, any closing punctuation comes before or after the closing guillemet depending on whether it modifies the quoted text or the whole sentence (e.g., Il lui a demandé : « Veux-tu que je t'aide  ?  » mais c'était à contre-cœur , but, Il a dit : « Je vais t'aider » , mais finalement il n'a rien fait ). In English, the closing punctuation of a phrase is supposed to come always inside the quotation marks (e.g., He said, “I will help you , ” but he never did ).  

Senior Member

• Oct 17, 2015
• Jul 29, 2017

‘ Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune , ’ said the giant. — Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Click to expand...

« Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune » , said the giant. — Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Click to expand...

C'est seulement l'usage typographique en vigueur pour l'anglais qui est différent de l'usage français. Il y a par ailleurs des différences entre les pays et entre les différents manuels typographiques anglophones. Pour plus de détails, voir Quotation marks in English - Wikipedia .  

• Jul 30, 2017

Maître Capello said: In English, the closing punctuation of a phrase is supposed to come always inside the quotation marks (e.g., He said, “I will help you , ” but he never did ). Click to expand...

More precisely, in the UK the standard rule is indeed not to enclose trailing commas inside quotations for true quotations, i.e., sentences that were actually spoken. But, as strange as it may be, the rule is to follow American style for fictional dialogues as in Harry Potter's example above.  

• May 22, 2019

How is a quote within a quote rendered in French? In America, we have the special rule to use single quotes to demarcate a quotation that is inside another quotation in double quotes. Example: "As I once told you," I repeated to him, "Mark Twain didn't say, 'Honesty is the best policy.' He said, 'Honesty is the best policy – when there is money in it.'" How would this be rendered in French? Double guillemets? Are double or single quotes ("", '') ever used in French?  

Robert K S said: How is a quote within a quote rendered in French? Click to expand...

• May 27, 2019

Can I make a combination of "tiret" and "guillemets" in the same dialogue? Example: Après une longue pause, Anne-Laure te demande : « Qu'y a-t-il ? » — Rien, réponds-tu.  

I would strongly advise against it as it isn't consistent. The modern usage is to use only dashes and no guillemets. Après une longue pause, Anne-Laure te demande : — Qu'y a-t-il ? — Rien, réponds-tu. Or simply: — Qu'y a-t-il ? te demande Anne-Laure après une longue pause. — Rien, réponds-tu. For more details, see FR: typographie des dialogues - guillemets, tirets cadratins (em dashes), ponctuation, majuscules, incises, etc.  

• Nov 5, 2020

I would really appreciate it if someone could tell us the keyboard combination to type guillemets. I'm currently copying and pasting them from Internet and it's rather laborious.  

• Nov 8, 2020