There is no space on the internal side of quote marks, with the exception of 1⁄4 firet (≈ 1⁄4 em) space between two quotation marks when there are no other characters between them (e.g. ,„ and ’”). Unlike English, French does not identify unquoted material within a quotation by using a second set of quotation marks. French uses angle quotation marks (guillemets, or duck-foot quotes), adding a ‘quarter-em space’a within the quotes. British publishing is regarded as more flexible about whether double or single quotation marks should be used. If another set of quotation marks is nested inside single quotation marks, double quotation marks are used again, and they continue to alternate as necessary (though this is rarely done).
(These exceptions are ignored by some Asian computer systems that systematically display quotation marks with the included spacing, as this spacing is part of the fixed-width characters.) A convention is the use of square brackets to indicate content between the quotation marks that has been modified from, or was not present in, the original material. In many cases, quotations that span multiple paragraphs are set as block quotations, and thus do not require quotation marks.
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Poland, adopted a variant with the convexity of the closing mark aimed rightward like the opening one, „…”. Some neighboring regions adopted the German curved marks tradition with lower–upper alignment, while some, e.g. Some authors claim that the reason for this was a practical one, in order to get a character that was clearly distinguishable from apostrophes, commas, and parentheses.
What Are Quotation Marks?
The double quotation mark is identical to the ditto mark in English-language usage. The Far East angle bracket quotation marks, 《…》, are also a development of the in-line angular quotation marks.citation needed On the other hand, Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic and Ethiopic adopted the French “angular” quotation marks, «…». This was considered aesthetically unpleasing, while the in-line quotation marks helped to maintain the typographical color, since the quotation marks had the same height and were aligned with the lower case letters. In his edition of the works of Aristotle, which appeared in 1483 or 1484, the Milanese Renaissance humanist Francesco Filelfo marked literal and appropriate quotes with oblique double dashes on the left margin of spinorhino casino each line. The double quotation mark derives from a marginal notation used in fifteenth-century manuscript annotations to indicate a passage of particular importance (not necessarily a quotation); the notation was placed in the outside margin of the page and was repeated alongside each line of the passage.
Using a breakable space of any kind often results in a quotation mark appearing alone at the beginning of a line, since the quotation mark is erroneously treated as an independent word. Even more commonly, many people put a normal (breaking) space inside the quotation markscitation needed because the non-breaking space cannot be accessed easily from the keyboard, or because they are not aware of this typographical refinement. Alternatively, an en-dash followed by a (non-breaking) space can be used to denote the beginning of quoted speech, in which case the end of the quotation is not specifically denoted (see section Quotation dash below). Although not generally common in the Netherlands any more, double angle (guillemet) quotation marks are still sometimes used in Belgium. The King’s English in 1908 noted that the prevailing British practice was to use double marks for most purposes, and single ones for quotations within quotations.
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- There is no space on the internal side of quote marks, with the exception of 1⁄4 firet (≈ 1⁄4 em) space between two quotation marks when there are no other characters between them (e.g. ,„ and ’”).
- Certain types of works—but not all—use quotation marks around their titles so the reader knows the work is a reference.
- Using quotation marks to indicate height is informal yet widely accepted.
- In fiction, they’re used for writing dialogue or whenever a character says something out loud.
- Scare quotes are used to show that the writer doubts the validity of a word.
- Use single quotation marks for quotations within quotations.
The quotation mark is typically used to denote inches, and the apostrophe denotes feet. Scare quotes in writing are the origin of the air quotes gesture in in-person speech. Scare quotes are used to show that the writer doubts the validity of a word. They indicate a quotation or direct speech and set words and passages apart from the rest of the text.
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.
- You can skip the comma before or after the quote for short quotes or phrases within a sentence if they flow naturally.
- British usage does vary, with some authoritative sources such as The Economist and The Times recommending the same usage as in the US, whereas other authoritative sources, such as The King’s English, Fowler’s, and New Hart’s Rules, recommend single quotation marks.
- Other languages use an escape character, often the backslash, as in ‘eat \’hot\’ dogs’.
- In English writing, quotation marks or inverted commas, also known informally as quotes, talking marks, speech marks, quote marks, quotemarks or speechmarks, are punctuation marks placed on either side of a word or phrase in order to identify it as a quotation, direct speech or a literal title or name.
- In non-fiction, some British publishers may permit placing punctuation that is not part of the person’s speech inside the quotation marks but prefer that it be placed outside.
- British publishing is regarded as more flexible about whether double or single quotation marks should be used.
In American English, punctuation marks are typically placed inside quotation marks, with some exceptions. Quotation marks come in pairs, with an opening quotation mark at the beginning and a closing one at the end of the quote. If you want to discuss a word, phrase, or letter in writing without using its intended meaning, set it apart with quotation marks. Chicago style uses quotation marks for titles of shorter works, such as poems, articles, and chapters, but uses italics for books and periodical titles. AP style uses quotation marks for titles of creative works like books, movies, songs, TV shows, and other compositions. Use quotation marks to represent speech in written text.
Place punctuation marks inside quotation marks
They also require the proper context so the reader understands why the writer doubts or is qualifying the word’s usage. In fiction, they’re used for writing dialogue or whenever a character says something out loud. This is most common in nonfiction writing when a writer uses a phrase or sentence from a preexisting source, usually to support their thesis.
In these cases, questions arise about the form (and names) of the quotation marks to be used. In Early Modern English, quotation marks were used to denote pithy comments. Because typewriter and computer keyboards lack keys to directly enter typographic quotation marks, much of typed writing has neutral quotation marks. Typographic quotation marks are usually used in manuscript and typeset text. Single quotation marks are valid only within a quotation, as per Rule 7, above. Put the title of a short work—one that is or could be part of a larger undertaking—in quotation marks.
Use a semicolon inside quotation marks when it’s part of the quoted material. When a colon is part of the quoted material, place it inside the quotation marks to indicate that what follows it elaborates on or continues the thought introduced before the colon. Colons are typically placed outside quotation marks unless they are part of the quoted material. Aside from quotes and speech, English also uses quotation marks for the titles of creative works. Indirect quotes restate or paraphrase those words or ideas and don’t require quotation marks.

