Do Periods Go Inside Or Outside Quotes

Even more confusing periods and commas always always always go inside quotation marks unless doing so would confuse the reader such as in a procedure when telling users what to type but exclamation points question marks and semicolons go outside.

Do periods go inside or outside quotes. Colons and semicolons are placed outside quotations while question marks and exclamation marks follow the logic of the sentence. Luckily when it comes to periods and commas the answer to whether they go inside or outside the quotation mark is much simpler. If you place quotation marks around a letter or number usually the period or comma falls outside the quotes. Semicolons colons asterisks and dashes always go outside the closing quotation mark.

You ve got to be carefully taught wrote oscar hammerstein ii. In british style spacing issues are less pronounced because it uses single quotation marks instead of double and commas and periods are placed outside the quotation marks. In the uk the tendency is to place them outside. In american english periods and commas always go inside the closing quotation mark.

He said we need to tell the boss right away she reported that the boss was in her words miffed. However if the quote is a phrase then the period should be outside the quotation mark. The most common question people ask about quotation marks is whether periods and commas go inside or outside and the answer depends on where your audience lives because in american english we always put periods and commas inside quotation marks but in british english periods and commas can go inside or outside kind of like the american rules for question marks and exclamation points. Simply put just ask yourself is the period for the quote or for the main sentence.

That s always true whether the quotation appears at the beginning of the sentence in the middle of the sentence or at the very end. This rule applies even if only one quoted word ends the sentence. The period is unique among punctuation marks in that yes it always goes inside the quotation marks. Periods come inside with only one exception the period always comes inside closing quotation marks.

In american writing commas and periods almost always go inside quotation marks. For other punctuation marks where the closing punctuation goes depends on which idea it refers to the sentence or the quote. And question marks and exclamation points require that you analyze the sentence and make a decision based on context. If you re using american english they go inside.

For example if the sentence is a question but the words in the quote are not the question mark would go outside the quotation marks. If the quotation is a sentence then the period should be inside the quotation marks. For instance he said i m going to the mall however this is not the case for all end punctuation marks.