All About Quotation Marks

Tie Sing Chie asks, “What’s the difference in terms of usage between the single quotation mark (’) and the double quotation mark (”)?”

Quotation marks are used mainly to quote speech, sentences or words. Both the single and the double quotation marks serve that purpose; the difference in their usage comes from geographical preferences.

Traditionally, the double quotation mark was used in the United States while the single quotation mark was the preference inside the United Kingdom. Recently, though, some British pubblications started to adopt the American usage, which is becoming the de facto standard (see a quotation from The Guardian below).

Notice that when you use nested quotations you should invert the quotation marks, for example:

My mother said, “John told me, ‘I will not go there.’”

Quotation marks can also be used to express irony:

Uncle Joe was really “sad” about it.

The only point where there is a clear distinction between the American and the British styles is the usage of punctuation with the quotation marks. In American English commas and periods, even if not part of the quotation itself, need to be included inside the quotation marks.

Cultists are camping out in front of Apple stores; bloggers call it the “Jesus phone.” (NY Times)

In British English, on the other hand, the commas and periods will be included inside the quotation marks only if they were actually part of the quotation, otherwise they will go outside.

Margaret Jay ruefully reflected that all Blair’s considerable achievements would be “terribly undermined, and probably fatally undermined, by what I think of as the tragedy of going into Iraq”. (Guardian.co.uk)

Daniel Scocco on June 27, 2007 Subscribe to our RSS Feed

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12 Responses to “All About Quotation Marks”

temp on June 28th, 2007 2:37 pm

well, here we speak spanish but it suppose to be a difference

when you quote something said you must use “” but when you are writting about someone or something with a nickname you must use ”

like jason ‘giambino’ said “you’re doing it wrong!”

sorry for my bad english anyways
Daniel on June 28th, 2007 8:03 pm

temp, thanks for sharing the Spanish usage!
Dirk on July 1st, 2007 10:57 am

I’ve also noticed that the British tend to use the single quotation mark in the “scare quote” (ironic or sarcastic) usage, while Americans use the full quotation mark.
CB on July 2nd, 2007 5:33 am

Here in Finland (I’m a native English speaker living and working here) the rule is ‘99 only’ - i.e. only what we would call closing quotation marks in English, both at the start and end of a quote.
Lawrence S. Miller on February 19th, 2008 12:31 pm

Daniel, please forgive my seeming to be picky. I don’t mean to be. In fact I am wondering if I have been missing something all these years.

In two instances above you used the word “commans” where I supposed “commas” the correct word. (Hope I used the right quotation marks in the right places there.) Those instances were “In American English commans and periods…,” and “In British English, on the other hand, the commans and periods….” (Please correct my punctuation where wrong.)

Have I been missing it all these years or did someone fail to proofread this entry thoroughly?

Please, never flag in your efforts. Yours is an important task. We all need reminding or taught, as the case may be, correct English punctuation so we can better convey what we intend. Without punctuation we cannot know what a writer means when he strings words together like “eats shoots and leaves” without punctuation. I, for one, certainly would not want to meet up with that critter who “eats shoots and leaves” until I knew the sense of those words.

Your strong supporter

(Silent note: Daniel, you are welcome to freely edit, strike, or not show my comments in your comment section. I would rather give you an apple than publicly bring up a possible correction in something you have written for good purpose, as it might well detract from your much needed efforts.)
Daniel Scocco on February 19th, 2008 1:42 pm

Lawrence, thanks for spotting such the typo on an old post, means we have people reading them .

They are fixed now.
Fanny on March 23rd, 2008 7:39 pm

I`ve never wrote to this page, but I like so much. Take care you anywhere.
Fanny on March 23rd, 2008 7:40 pm

I like this page, enjoy it a lot. Thanks for read my comments.
nova on April 15th, 2008 1:08 pm

I just want to thank Daniel

and say: “Keep going!”.

your fan
PreciseEdit on April 15th, 2008 6:40 pm

This is one case where the British rules make more sense than the rules for American English. Now, if only we can get them to spell “behavior” correctly (wink).
MUHAMMAD ALEEM on June 10th, 2008 4:15 am

first,I thank to you for providing the knowledge to the people.
I study this page first time today.I really get the knowledge from it and also carry in future.

Regards,

Muhammad Aleem Ansari