Quotes Within Quotes At End Of Sentence
There should only be one end mark at the end of a sentence so yes it would be incorrect to place a period both inside and outside of the quotation marks all end marks periods question marks exclamation points and commas go inside quotation marks.
Quotes within quotes at end of sentence. Joan emphatically said we won t sing god save the queen it is of course a very rare occasion to see a sentence this complicated. Sandy asked them why do you guys always fight did the dog bark every time he heard sandy say i m bringing dinner. If the quotation is the entire sentence place the quotation mark after the period. In this case you revert to the double quotation marks for the second quote within a quote.
Your sentence would look like this double single double. Quoting the words of others. Strunk and white do not agree. Here is an example.
You know those pesky little punctuation marks your kid carefully positions smack dab above the period hoping you won t notice his indecision. John said mary called and said something terrible has happened at mother s house. I said diamonds are a girl s best friend. Learn where to place a period question mark or exclamation point when using quotation marks.
How to use quotation marks at the end of a sentence. For more on the proper use of multiple punctuation at the end of a sentence see here. Bobbi said i read an interesting article titled a poor woman s journey. There s nothing requiring the writer to deliberately manufacture a sentence with quotes within quotes within quotes.
There are two ways to incorporate quotations in your writing. Rarely you will have someone quoting someone who is quoting yet another party. If they apply to the quoted material they go within the quotation marks. Short quotations can generally be run in to the main text using quotation marks.
Mom said victor s bed is empty that s all i know. As a courtesy make sure there is visible space at the start or end of a quotation between adjacent single and double quotation marks. Run in quotations and block quotations. Just rewrite the thing into something less unwieldy.
If however a sentence rework is impossible just add another level of hierarchy. If it is a quotation within a sentence place the last quotation mark before the period. Quotes in british english. The american rule is that periods always go inside all quotation marks.
The standard is there in the event that the writer does end up having to deliver this level of clumsiness.