Quotation marks in English


In English writing, quotation marks or inverted commas, also known informally as quotes, talking marks, speech marks, quote marks, quotemarks or speechmarks, are punctuation marks placed on either side of a word or phrase in order to identify it as a quotation, direct speech or a literal title or name. They are also used to indicate that the meaning of the word or phrase they surround should be taken to be different from that typically associated with it ; in this way, they are often used to express irony. They also sometimes appear to be used as a means of adding emphasis, although this usage is usually considered incorrect.
Quotation marks are written as a pair of opening and closing marks in either of two styles: or. Opening and closing quotation marks may be identical in form, or may be distinctly left-handed and right-handed ; see quotation mark glyphs for details. Typographic quotation marks are usually used in manuscript and typeset text. Because typewriter and computer keyboards lack keys to directly enter typographic quotation marks, much of typed writing has neutral quotation marks. Some computer software has the feature often called "smart quotes" which can, sometimes imperfectly, convert neutral quotation marks to typographic ones.
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. Likewise, the typographic opening single quotation mark is sometimes used to represent the ʻokina while either the typographic closing single quotation mark or the neutral single quotation mark may represent the prime symbol. Characters with different meanings are typically given different visual appearance in typefaces that recognize these distinctions, and they each have different Unicode code points. Despite being semantically different, the typographic closing single quotation mark and the typographic apostrophe have the same visual appearance and code point, as do the neutral single quote and typewriter apostrophe.

History

In the first centuries of typesetting, quotations were distinguished merely by indicating the speaker, and this can still be seen in some editions of the Christian Bible. During the Renaissance, quotations were distinguished by setting in a typeface contrasting with the main body text. Long quotations were also set this way, at full size and full measure.
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. In some Baroque and Romantic-period books, they would be repeated at the beginning of every line of a long quotation. When this practice was abandoned, the empty margin remained, leaving the modern form of indented block quotation.
In Early Modern English, quotation marks were used to denote pithy comments. They were used to quote direct speech as early as the late sixteenth century, and this practice became more common over time.

Usage

Quotations and speech

Single or double quotation marks denote either speech or a quotation. Double quotes are preferred in the United States, and also tend to be preferred in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Single quotes are more usual in the United Kingdom, Ireland and South Africa, though double quotes are also common there. A publisher's or author's style may take precedence over regional general preferences. The important idea is that the style of opening and closing quotation marks must be matched:
For speech within speech, the other style is used as inner quotation marks:
Sometimes quotations are nested in more levels than inner and outer quotation. Nesting levels up to five can be found in the Christian Bible. In these cases, questions arise about the form of the quotation marks to be used. The most common way is to simply alternate between the two forms, thus:
If such a passage is further quoted in another publication, then all of their forms have to be shifted up by one level.
In most cases, quotations that span multiple paragraphs should be set as block quotations, and thus do not require quotation marks. Quotation marks are used for multiple-paragraph quotations in some cases, especially in narratives. The convention in English is to give opening quotation marks to the first and each subsequent paragraph, using closing quotation marks only for the final paragraph of the quotation, as in the following example from Pride and Prejudice:
As noted above, in some older texts, the quotation mark is repeated every line, rather than every paragraph. The Spanish convention uses closing quotation marks at the beginning of all subsequent paragraphs beyond the first.
When quoted text is interrupted, such as with the phrase he said, a closing quotation mark is used before the interruption, and an opening quotation mark after. Commas are also often used before and after the interruption, more often for quotations of speech than for quotations of text:
Quotation marks are not used for indirect speech. 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.
For example, if Hal says: "All systems are functional", then, in indirect speech:

Irony

Another common use of quotation marks is to indicate or call attention to ironic, dubious, or non-standard words:
Quotes indicating verbal irony, or other special use, are sometimes called scare quotes. They are sometimes gestured in oral speech using air quotes, or indicated in speech with a tone change or by replacement with supposed or so-called.

Signalling unusual usage

Quotation marks are also used to indicate that the writer realises that a word is not being used in its current commonly accepted sense:
In addition to conveying a neutral attitude and to call attention to a neologism, or slang, or special terminology, quoting can also indicate words or phrases that are descriptive but unusual, colloquial, folksy, startling, humorous, metaphoric, or contain a pun: Dawkins's concept of a meme could be described as an "evolving idea".
People also use quotation marks in this way to distance the writer from the terminology in question so as not to be associated with it, for example to indicate that a quoted word is not official terminology, or that a quoted phrase presupposes things that the author does not necessarily agree with; or to indicate special terminology that should be identified for accuracy's sake as someone else's terminology, as when a term pre-dates the writer or represents the views of someone else, perhaps without judgement.
The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition, acknowledges this type of use but, in section 7.57, cautions against its overuse: "Quotation marks are often used to alert readers that a term is used in a nonstandard, ironic, or other special sense.... hey imply 'This is not my term,' or 'This is not how the term is usually applied.' Like any such device, scare quotes lose their force and irritate readers if overused."

Use–mention distinction

Either quotation marks or italic type can emphasise that an instance of a word refers to the word itself rather than its associated concept.
A three-way distinction is occasionally made between normal use of a word, referring to the concept behind the word, and the word itself :
The logic for this derives from the need to distinguish use forms, coupled with the mandate to retain consistent notation for like use forms. The switching between double and single quotes in nested citation quotes reveals the same literary device for reducing ambiguity.

In linguistics

Precise writing about language often uses italics for the word itself and single quotation marks for a gloss, with the two not separated by a comma or other punctuation, and with strictly logical quotation around the gloss – extraneous terminal punctuation outside the quotation marks – even in North American publications, which might otherwise prefer them inside:

Titles of artistic works

Quotation marks, rather than italics, are generally used for the titles of shorter works. Whether these are single or double depends on the context; however, many styles, especially for poetry, prefer the use of single quotation marks.
As a rule, the title of a whole publication is italicised, whereas the titles of minor works within or a subset of the larger publication are written with quotation marks.

Nicknames and false titles

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.

Nonstandard usage

Quotes are sometimes used for emphasis in lieu of underlining or italics, most commonly on signs or placards. This usage can be confused with ironic or altered-usage quotation, sometimes with unintended humor. For example, For sale: "fresh" fish, "fresh" oysters, could be construed to imply that fresh is not used with its everyday meaning, or indeed to indicate that the fish or oysters are anything but fresh. As another example, Cashiers' desks open until noon for your "convenience" could be interpreted to mean that the convenience was for the bank employees, not the customers.

Order of punctuation

With regard to quotation marks adjacent to periods and commas, there are two styles of punctuation in widespread use. These two styles are most commonly referred to as "American" and "British". Both systems have the same rules regarding question marks, exclamation points, colons, and semicolons. However, they differ in the treatment of periods and commas.
In all major forms of English, question marks, exclamation marks, semicolons, and any other punctuation are placed inside or outside the closing quotation mark depending on whether they are part of the quoted material.

British practice

The prevailing style in the United Kingdom called British style, logical quotation, and logical punctuation is to include within quotation marks only those punctuation marks that appeared in the original quoted material and in which the punctuation mark fits with the sense of the quotation, but otherwise to place punctuation outside the closing quotation marks. Fowler's A Dictionary of Modern English Usage provides an early example of the rule: "All signs of punctuation used with words in quotation marks must be placed according to the sense."
When dealing with words-as-words, short-form works and sentence fragments, this style places periods and commas outside the quotation marks:
When dealing with direct speech, British placement depends on whether or not the quoted statement is complete or a fragment. According to the British style guide Butcher's Copy-editing, American style should be used when writing fiction. In non-fiction, some British publishers may permit placing punctuation that is not part of the person's speech inside the quotation marks but prefer that it be placed outside. Periods and commas that part of the person's speech are permitted inside the quotation marks regardless of whether the material is fiction.
Hart's Rules and the Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors call the British style "new" quoting. It is also similar to the use of quotation marks in many other languages. 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.
According to the Jargon File from 1983, American hackers switched to what they later discovered to be the British quotation system because placing a period inside a quotation mark can change the meaning of data strings that are meant to be typed character-for-character.

U.S. practice

In the United States, the prevailing style is called American style, whereby commas and periods are almost always placed inside closing quotation marks. The American style is used by most newspapers, publishing houses, and style guides in the United States and, to a lesser extent, Canada as well. It is the style recommended by the Modern Language Association's MLA Style Manual, the American Psychological Association's APA Publication Manual, the University of Chicago's The Chicago Manual of Style, the American Institute of Physics's AIP Style Manual, the American Medical Association's AMA Manual of Style, the American Political Science Association's APSA Style Manual, the Associated Press' The AP Guide to Punctuation, and the Canadian Public Works' The Canadian Style.

However, some American style guides specific to certain specialties prefer the British style. 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". When dealing with words-as-words, short-form works, and sentence fragments, standard American style places periods and commas inside the quotation marks:
This style also places periods and commas inside the quotation marks when dealing with direct speech, regardless of whether the work is fiction or non-fiction:
Nevertheless, many American style guides explicitly permit periods and commas outside the quotation marks when the presence of the punctuation mark inside the quotation marks leads to ambiguity, such as when describing keyboard input, as in the following example:

Ending the sentence

In both major styles, regardless of placement, only one end mark can end a sentence. Only the period, however, may not end a quoted sentence when it does not also end the enclosing sentence, except for literal text:
With narration of direct speech, both styles retain punctuation inside the quotation marks, with a full stop changing into a comma if followed by explanatory text, also known as a dialogue tag. Americans tend to apply quotations when signifying doubt of veracity, to imply another meaning to a word or to imply a cynical take on a paraphrased quotation, without punctuation at all.

Typographical considerations

Single nested within double, or vice versa

British English often uses the single quotation mark as the outermost and double quote for nested quotations, where American English would use the double quotation mark as the outermost and single quote for nested.
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, recommend single quotation marks. In journals and newspapers, quotation mark double/single use often depends on the individual publication's house style.

Spacing

In English, when a quotation follows other writing on a line of text, a space precedes the opening quotation mark unless the preceding symbol, such as an em dash, requires that there be no space. When a quotation is followed by other writing on a line of text, a space follows the closing quotation mark unless it is immediately followed by other punctuation within the sentence, such as a colon or closing punctuation.
There is generally no space between an opening quotation mark and the following word, or a closing quotation mark and the preceding word. When a double quotation mark or a single quotation mark immediately follows the other, proper spacing for legibility may suggest that a thin space or larger non-breaking space be inserted.
This is not common practice in mainstream publishing, which will generally use more precise kerning. It is more common in online writing, although using CSS to create the spacing by kerning is more semantically appropriate in Web typography than inserting extraneous spacing characters.

Non-language-related usage

Straight quotation marks are often used to approximate the prime and double prime, e.g. when signifying feet and inches or arcminutes and arcseconds. For instance, 5 feet and 6 inches is often written 5' 6"; and 40 degrees, 20 arcminutes, and 50 arcseconds is written 40° 20' 50". When available, however, primes should be used instead. Prime and double prime are not present in most code pages, including ASCII and Latin-1, but are present in Unicode, as characters and. The HTML character entity references are and, respectively.
Double quotation marks, or pairs of single ones, also represent the ditto mark.
Straight single and double quotation marks are used in most programming languages to delimit strings or literal characters, collectively known as string literals. In some languages only one type is allowed, in some both are used with different meanings and in others both are used interchangeably. In some languages, if it is desired to include the same quotation marks used to delimit a string inside the string, the quotation marks are doubled. For example, to represent the string in Pascal one uses 'eat hot dogs'. Other languages use an escape character, often the backslash, as in 'eat \'hot\' dogs'.
In the TeX typesetting program, left double quotes are produced by typing and right double quotes by typing two apostrophes.

Typing quotation marks on a computer keyboard

Standard English computer keyboard layouts inherited the single and double straight quotation marks from the typewriter, and they do not include individual keys for left-handed and right-handed typographic quotation marks. In character encoding terms, these characters are labeled . However, most computer text-editing programs provide a "smart quotes" feature to automatically convert straight quotation marks into bidirectional punctuation. Generally, this smart quote feature is enabled by default, and it can be turned off in an "options" or "preferences" dialog. Some websites do not allow typographic quotation marks or apostrophes in posts. One can skirt these limitations, however, by using the HTML character codes or entities.

Smart quotes

To make typographic quotation marks easier to enter, publishing software often automatically converts typewriter quotation marks to typographic form during text entry. Out-of-the-box behavior on macOS and iOS is to make this conversion. These are known as smart quotes. Straight quotation marks are also retronymically called dumb quotes.
The method for producing smart quotes may be based solely on the character preceding the mark; if it is a space or another of a set of hard-coded characters, the mark is rendered as an opening quote on the assumption that such a mark would never occur inside or after a word; and if not, it is rendered as a closing quote or apostrophe. This method can cause errors, especially for contractions that start with an apostrophe. For example, it fails to correctly render the abbreviation for 2014 as ’14, or the archaic contraction of it is as ’tis. Errors may also be encountered with nested quotation marks, with “ ‘Hello,’ he said, ‘to you’ ” incorrectly rendered as either “ ‘Hello,’ he said, ‘to you’ “ or “ ’Hello,’ he said, ‘to you’ ” depending on whether closing quotation marks are included in the set of characters that trigger an opening quotation mark.