Period Inside Quotes Or Outside Quotes

He said we need to tell the boss right away she reported that the boss was in her words miffed.

Period inside quotes or outside quotes. Semicolons colons asterisks and dashes always go outside the closing quotation mark. The rules get more complicated from there but you didn t ask about everything just periods and commas thank god. This rule applies even if only one quoted word ends the sentence. And question marks and exclamation points require that you analyze the sentence and make a decision based on context.

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. 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. Jazz on january 12 2010 8 18 pm.

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. Colons and semicolons are placed outside quotations while question marks and exclamation marks follow the logic of the sentence. Period punctuation inside or outside of quotes. It is an entity by itself though it is incorporated with the rest of the sentence and the sentences around it.

If i m quoting winston churchill i d put his direct words in quotes. Periods and commas go inside. If one is quoting a complete sentence then the period should go inside the quote. In the uk the tendency is to place them outside.

I ve seen many texts that have the period inside which i ve always thought was wrong. He said i ll be back i understand that ending it with period quote period would be awkward. British english places both outside so be consistent with where you live. The period is unique among punctuation marks in that yes it always goes inside the quotation marks.

Luckily when it comes to periods and commas the answer to whether they go inside or outside the quotation mark is much simpler. In american english periods and commas always go inside the closing quotation mark. When a period goes inside the quotation marks it is set aside as being part of the section in the marks. Other types of puncutation go outside.

Periods come inside with only one exception the period always comes inside closing quotation marks. In the us periods and commas are placed inside quotation marks. Them s the rules for american english. It seems to me that common sense dictates.

If you re using american english they go inside.