Double Quotes Inside Or Outside Period
Semicolons colons asterisks and dashes always go outside the closing quotation mark.
Double quotes inside or outside period. 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. Roaring fish nov 9 14 at 8 51. In american english periods and commas always go inside the closing quotation mark. Therefore modern british english has the full stop outside the final quotation mark the logical quote while modern american english has the period inside the final quotation mark the typesetters quote.
If i m quoting winston churchill i d put his direct words in quotes. 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. Periods come inside with only one exception the period always comes inside closing quotation marks. If one is quoting a complete sentence then the period should go inside the quote.
When a period goes inside the quotation marks it is set aside as being part of the section in the marks. Jazz on january 12 2010 8 18 pm. For other punctuation marks where the closing punctuation goes depends on which idea it refers to the sentence or the quote. 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.
In the us periods and commas are placed inside quotation marks. It is an entity by itself though it is incorporated with the rest of the sentence and the sentences around it. He said we need to tell the boss right away she reported that the boss was in her words miffed. Luckily when it comes to periods and commas the answer to whether they go inside or outside the quotation mark is much simpler.
Colons and semicolons are placed outside quotations while question marks and exclamation marks follow the logic of the sentence. Compare did he say i am angry. When something is set in quotation marks it is separated. And question marks and exclamation points require that you analyze the sentence and make a decision based on context.
If only select words or partial phrases are quoted the period should be outside the quotes. The americans did not change back. It seems to me that common sense dictates. The period is unique among punctuation marks in that yes it always goes inside the quotation marks.
If the period or any other punctuation is yours it goes outside the quotes. Where the question is yours with did he say is that a cat where the punctuation is part of the quote. If the punctuation is part of the quote it goes inside. If you re using american english they go inside.
For instance he said i m going to the mall however this is not the case for all end punctuation marks.