Quotes Inside Outside Period
Some are included within the quotation marks if it makes sense and other are outside of it.
Quotes inside outside period. 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. In the uk the tendency is to place them outside. For all other punctuation the british and american styles are in agreement. Colons and semicolons are placed outside quotations while question marks and exclamation marks follow the logic of the sentence.
In american english periods and commas always go inside the closing quotation mark. The main problem that people have with using quotes is also a fundamental one. And question marks and exclamation points require that you analyze the sentence and make a decision based on context. This rule applies even if only one quoted word ends the sentence.
If one is quoting a complete sentence then the period should go inside the quote. The period is unique among punctuation marks in that yes it always goes inside the quotation marks. If you re using american english they go inside. Jazz on january 12 2010 8 18 pm.
Semicolons colons asterisks and dashes always go outside the closing quotation mark. For instance he said i m going to the mall however this is not the case for all end punctuation marks. In the us periods and commas are placed inside 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.
Periods come inside with only one exception the period always comes inside closing quotation marks. The standard rule in american punctuation is that periods go inside quotation marks as do most commas even if the punctuation is not part of the quote. It seems to me that common sense dictates. British style more sensibly places unquoted periods and commas outside the quotation marks.
You ve got to be carefully taught wrote oscar hammerstein ii. Does the period at the end of the quote go inside or outside of the quotation marks. In american writing commas and periods almost always go inside quotation marks. If only select words or partial phrases are quoted the period should be outside the quotes.
Unless the punctuation is part of the quoted material it goes outside 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.