(1) To identify previously spoken or written words. This includes individual words, phrases, or separate clauses. However, no capitalization is necessary if you’re not quoting a complete sentence. In that spinorhino casino case, it begins with a lowercase letter, even if the original sentence begins with a capitalized letter.
Quotes indicating verbal irony, or other special use, are sometimes called scare quotes. If such a passage is further quoted in another publication, then all of their forms have to be shifted up by one level. Sometimes quotations are nested in more levels than inner and outer quotation. They were used to quote direct speech as early as the late sixteenth century, and this practice became more common over time.
Meaning of quotation mark in English
In Australia, double quotes are preferred for indicating speech, except in the government and corporate sectors, where the preference is for single quotes. The typographic closing double quotation mark and the neutral double quotation mark are similar to – and sometimes stand in for – the ditto mark and the double prime symbol. Opening and closing quotation marks may be identical in form (called neutral, vertical, straight, typewriter, or “dumb” quotation marks), or may be distinctly left-handed and right-handed (typographic or, colloquially, curly quotation marks); see Quotation mark § Summary table for details. Although the word is the same, “Camelot” the song takes quotation marks because it’s part of a larger work—namely, a full-length show called Camelot. Periods and commas ALWAYS go inside quotation marks.
- If a question is within the quoted material, a question mark should be placed inside the quotation marks.
- Quotation marks can also set off a nickname embedded in an actual name, or a false or ironic title embedded in an actual title; for example, Nat “King” Cole, Frank “Chairman of the Board” Sinatra, or Simone Rizzo “Sam the Plumber” DeCavalcante.
- When this practice was abandoned, the empty margin remained, leaving the modern form of indented block quotation.
- Because you want to attach the speaker to their dialogue, use a comma rather than a period to end the quote inside the quotation marks.
- In general, short-form works like poems, songs, or short stories use quotation marks, while long-form works like books, films, or stage plays use italics.
- There are other considerations for including curved quotes in the widely used markup languages HTML, XML, and SGML.
What is the function of quotation marks?
Quotation marks are also used to indicate the titles of creative works and highlight specific terms or phrases, often emphasizing tone. Quotation marks have many essential functions in grammar. While using numeric references can make a page more compatible with outdated browsers, using named references are safer for systems that handle multiple character encodings (i.e. RSS aggregators and search results). In addition, while the HTML 4, XHTML and XML specifications allow specifying numeric character references in either hexadecimal or decimal, SGML and older versions of HTML (and many old implementations) only support decimal references. If the encoding of the document supports direct representation of the characters, they can be used, but doing so can cause difficulties if the document needs to be edited by someone who is using an editor that cannot support the encoding.
Primary quotations are orthographically distinguished from secondary quotations that may be nested within a primary quotation. An exception may be made when writing fiction, where the first comma may be placed before the first closing quote. These two styles are most commonly referred to as “American” and “British”, or sometimes “typesetters’ quotation” and “logical quotation”.
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In Windows, if it is necessary to follow a space with a closing quotation mark when Smart Quotes is in effect, it is usually sufficient to input the character using the Alt code shown above rather than typing ” or ‘. Straight quotation marks are also retronymically called dumb quotes (“…”). There is generally no space between an opening quotation mark and the following word, or a closing quotation mark and the preceding word. In journals and newspapers, quotation mark double/single use often depends on the individual publication’s house style. British usage does vary, with some authoritative sources such as The Economist and The Times recommending the same usage as in the US, whereas other authoritative sources, such as The King’s English, Fowler’s, and New Hart’s Rules, recommend single quotation marks. For example, the journal Language of the Linguistic Society of America requires that the closing quotation mark precede the period or comma unless that period or comma is “a necessary part of the quoted matter”.
“The best investments today”, according to Smith, “are commodities and emerging-market stocks”. “The best investments today,” according to Smith, “are commodities and emerging-market stocks.” Find the quotation you need on our sister site funnyQuotation.com. (2) Quotation marks to signify so-called or alleged (4) To show that a word refers to the word itself not the word’s meaning.
Writing about letters and words
Both quotation marks and italics are used for the titles of works, but certain types of works use only quotes, and others use only italics. Use sic within quotations to indicate that any spelling, punctuation, grammatical errors, or unusual phrases are part of the original quoted material. Place a comma inside the quotation marks at the end of a quoted phrase. If you’re using the same word, sentence, or phrase as another author, put those words between quotation marks.
- In Portugal, angular quotation marks (ex. «quote») are traditionally used.
- The curved quotation marks, as well as the straight single quotation mark, are permitted.
- Quotation marksA are punctuation marks used in pairs in various writing systems to identify direct speech, a quotation, or a phrase.
- Also, any punctuation otherwise required by the structure of the sentence is placed outside the single quotation marks.
- Quotation marks, rather than italics, are generally used for the titles of shorter works.
- The quotation can be introduced with a transitional phrase followed by a comma, helping separate the spoken words from the rest of the sentence.
- Different varieties and styles of English have different conventions regarding whether terminal punctuation should be written inside or outside the quotation marks.
The following is an example of TeX input which yields proper curly quotation marks. All other forms of quotation marks, such as angled, lowered, inverted, were not provided by British or American typewriters. When corner brackets are being used for quotations, quote-within-quote segments are marked with white corner brackets. Neither the Portuguese language regulator nor the Brazilian prescribe a particular shape for quotation marks, they only prescribe when and how they should be used.
Why Quotation Marks Are Important
In both major styles, regardless of placement, only one end mark (?, !, or .) can end a sentence. A few US professional societies whose professions frequently employ various non-word characters, such as chemistry and computer programming, use the British form in their style guides (see ACS Style Guide). They are sometimes gestured in oral speech using air quotes, or indicated in speech with a tone change or by replacement with supposedly or so-called. This is because indirect speech can be a paraphrase; it is not a direct quote, and in the course of any composition, it is important to document when one is using a quotation versus when one is just giving content, which may be paraphrased, and which could be open to interpretation. Single quotes are more usual in the United Kingdom, Ireland and South Africa, though double quotes are also common there, especially in journalistic worksclarification needed. This rule is optional with one-word quotations.
If the question mark or exclamation mark is not part of the quote but part of a question or statement, place it outside the quotation marks. If the question mark or exclamation mark is part of the quote, place it inside the quotation marks. Place the period inside the quotation marks when a quotation comes at the end of a sentence. Place both parts of the quote within their own set of quotation marks. Because you want to attach the speaker to their dialogue, use a comma rather than a period to end the quote inside the quotation marks. In British English, punctuation marks are placed outside the quotation marks unless they are part of the original quotation.
If you’re quoting a complete sentence, capitalize the first letter of the first word, just like a typical sentence. To indicate the measurement correctly, place the marks directly after the number with no space. No quotes are necessary if the nickname is how a famous person is most commonly recognized, as with many historical figures. The standard is to place the quoted nickname between the first name and the surname, although that’s not necessarily a rule.
A closing quotation mark, », is added to the beginning of each new paragraph within a quotation. (For other languages employing dashes, see section Quotation dash below.) The dashes may be used entirely without quotation marks as well. The French news site L’Humanité uses straight quotation marks along with angle ones. The use of English quotation marks is increasing in French and usually follows English rules, for instance in situations when the keyboard or the software context doesn’t allow the use of guillemets. Neutral (straight) quotation marks, ” and ‘, are used widely, especially in texts typed on computers and on websites.
Another style of quoting is to use an em-dash to open a quote; this is used almost exclusively for quoting dialogues rather than for single statements, and is virtually always the one used for that purpose in works of fiction. In Polish printed books and publications, this dictionary-recommended style for guillemets (also known as »German quotes«) is used almost exclusively. Guillemet marks pointing outwards are used for definitions (mainly in scientific publications and dictionaries), as well as for enclosing spoken lines and indirect speech, especially in poetic texts. But the most frequent convention used in printed books for nested quotations is to style them in italics.
In some Baroque and Romantic-period books, they would be repeated at the beginning of every line of a long quotation. Quotation marks were first cut in metal type during the middle of the sixteenth century, and were used copiously by some printers by the seventeenth. They are also sometimes used to emphasise a word or phrase, although this is usually considered incorrect. Quotation marks are often used with technical terms, terms used in an unusual way, or other expressions that vary from standard usage. Is outside the quotation. ” is part of the quotation.
