We've covered when to use quotation marks. But when you throw question marks and exclamation points into the mix, things can get a little tricky. Let's demystify this quotation mark conundrum, shall we?
Buckle up. We may experience some turbulence.
Periods, Commas, and Quotation Marks
Periods and commas always go inside quotation marks, whether they be single quotes or double quotes.
“I told you that you shouldn't try walking barefoot on broken glass,” Mickey said.
Carter responded, “I believe you actually said, ‘you shouldn't try walking on shattered glass.'”
Question Marks and Exclamation Points
Question marks and exclamation points, however, are a little trickier. Rules of logic come into play.
If the question or exclamation is within the quotation marks, then the punctuation also goes within the quotes.
“My feet are killing me!” Mark wailed.
Carter asked, “Well, why didn't you pay attention to Mick's warning?”
On the other hand, if the question or exclamation is not part of the quote itself, the punctuation goes outside the quotes.
Have you ever shared Forrest Gump's sentiment that “life is like a box of chocolates”?
A Caveat
Keep in mind, these are the rules for American English. The Brits have a different method of punctuating with quotation marks, so if you're writing for an audience in the UK, these rules don't necessarily apply to your work.
Do quotation marks ever trip you up? What sticky punctuation situations have you written yourself into? Let me know in the comments.
PRACTICE
Take fifteen minutes to write about three friends who just acted on a really bad idea despite advice to the contrary. Use punctuation properly in your quotations.
Post your practice in the comments section. And if you practice, make sure to give feedback to a few other practitioners.
Joe, I remember having these rules drilled into my by the freshman writing instructor in college! I suppose drilling is good for the soul as these have remained with me even to this day. However, thanks for the reminder and keeping us on our toes. 🙂
Thanks Sherrey! I forgot to mention that this one is from Liz. I’m glad you’re already a pro, though. I certainly am not!
OK, so this took a bit more than 15 minutes, but Joe, these exercises can be so much fun.
As they were walking passed the Personal Interstellar Space Transportation Utility Vehicles dealership Imsohep prodded his friend Tungis in the ribs and waited for him to react.
“What you do that for?” asked Tungis.
“To get your attention, of course!” Imsohep replied. “Look to your right,” he said, pointing at the ancient looking space transporter behind the fence.
Tungis sighed, rolled his eyes and followed his cousins finger. He froze.
“My Gods!” exclaimed their friend Bartok. “Isn’t that the model your father designed during World War 7?”
“All those years ago. Yes!” replied Tungis.
“If I remember correctly, your dad told us he’d built in a secret hot-wire functionality into its design,” said Imsohep.
“And I’ve memorized the method to this very day,” said Tungis, his gaze still locked on the machine. “Guys, when was the last time we had some serious fun?”
Bartok started to protest: “Are you sure about this, Tungis? You know that model was known for its navigational unreliability. Your dad told me himself! Apparently there was a one in 33 thousand chance that the coordinates you entered would be reversed and you’d end up going in the opposite direction! I’m not chancing it. No way. I have to be back at school this afternoon.”
Now Imsohep prodded him in the ribs. “Chicken!” he said, flapping his elbows and poking his head back and forth. He knew how Bartok hated that.
Tungis started walking towards the dealership entrance. “Come on guys,” he said matter-of-factly. “We’ll be back before lunch.”
Imsohep and Bartok followed him into the shop.
Tungis had already approached the salesman. “You mind if we take a look inside that old model out there?” he asked him nonchalantly.
“Sure. Be my guest. There’s no key inside so it’s not going anywhere.”
“Cool! Thanks,” he said and turned back towards his friends.
They walked towards the transporter and climbed up the steps into the small opening on the side, Tungis getting in last. He flicked a switch on the inside wall and the ladder merged itself into the smooth surface of ships hull. The opening closed itself silently and they were now inside.
Tungis sat down at the controls, pressed a series of buttons in a sequence known only to him and his late father, and a low hum emerged to break the silence of the cockpit.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome aboard the Tungis Personal Transporter, model 2257-B. Your flight this morning will be taking you on a most scenic route. Buckle up guys!”
His two friends seated themselves in the remaining seats aside their new captain. They watched Tungis key in the coordinates before he leaned back in his seat, his hands clasped behind his head.
“Here we go!” he said.
As the transporter lifted off the courtyard, they peered out of the cockpit windscreen and noticed the salesman running out towards them, yelling, his face purple with rage. But all they could hear was the quiet hum of their cocooned surroundings.
Tungis sat forward again, and looked out the windscreen. “That’s not the direction I entered,” he said, his face frowning.
Bartok leaned forward and dropped his head into his hands. “Oh Gods,I knew it!”
That’s funny. I liked “flapping his elbows and poking his head back and forth” such a simple description and so accurate. You catch the mischief making of these kids very well.
Very amazing opinion and as ususal, i like it and very enjoyed.
Ned knew, as soon as he heard his older cousins talking, that it wasn’t a good idea to go all the way to the property were they were building a new house on the cottage line. They had seen if from the beach the last time they went to see the men haul in the fish nets.
“Didn’t Mama say, “Don’t go near that house that Mr. Vaughn is building”? he said but the other boys weren’t listening.
“Do you think they’ll have the walls up yet?” said Leland.
Not wanting to be left alone at home, Ned went with the older boys past the Tyree place, where old Mr. Tyree sat on the porch smoking a pungent cigar, to the vacant lot which was a good long walk.
There was a small wooded area around the front of the property where the new house was being built.
“I’m tired,” said Ned. “Let’s go back.”
“Why did we bring him?” said Robert.
“Because we’re supposed to watch him while my mother takes a nap,” said Leland.
“I’ll wait for you here,” said Ned and he plopped down beside a blackberry bramble.
“Stay here then, and we’ll come back and get you,” said Robert.
Ned watched the older boys push though the brambles and nettles that grew under the live oaks. He sat for while after they’d gone and smacked mosquitoes, but finally became bored and got up to follow the older boys.
He made his way out of the woods, and climbed the sand dune that blocked the view of the beach and the building site. From the top of the dune he could see the a bulldozer and a bucket truck, beside a big hole that he supposed was going to be a basement, but he didn’t see the other boys.
I can see these kids so easily. You start with double quoatation marks too. Tricky!
I’m not sure if I used them correctly though. I am not good at punctuation. It’s so easy to read without ever noticing it really.
Actually, I was going to make a comment about that. When quotation marks are within quotes you use an apostrophe. So it’d really be:
“Didn’t Mama say, ‘Don’t go near that house that Mr. Vaughn is building’?”
Make sense?
Katie
Like the example above, duh. Thanks!
me too!
I may be late but let me add a little amendment to this issue – in English the triple quotation marks are regular ones again. Since I don’t know the exact wording it’s not going to be an exact quote from Fahrenheit 451, but still close. [This is the scene in which Mildred discovers that Montagowns books] “[…] “What if the take the “family”‘?”
In most other European languages it will be this: ‘”[…] “What if they take the ‘family’?””‘.
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I’m a British English user, and as far as I know, punctuation falls outside single quotes… Right? For example:
“Did you see this year’s graduation slogan? I heard it’s ‘Life starts today’.”
But I’m no quotation mark pro, so I’m probably completely off track.
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There were three things I knew about this world. One, homework multiplied precisely when you didn’t want it to. Two, Gap always had a better pair of jeans for sale the day after I bought my perfect pair. And three, Marco, Jake and Cassie would never, ever agree on anything.
And really, why couldn’t I have been proven wrong on one of the first two?
“Let me get this straight.” I looked from Cassie to Jake.
“You – ” I pointed at Jake “– think it’s a good idea to go to the pet store, distract the counter staff and release all the animals, and you –” it was Cassie’s turn now “– see nothing wrong with that?”
“Nothing at all,” Marco said. “On a scale of one to ten, with Mother Theresa being a one and Hitler being about twenty-six million, releasing the poor darlings in the pet store rates about a minus-five. Now if you were awake in math class, that’s about six points better than being Mother Theresa. Release all the pets, get a Nobel prize.”
I ignored him. “Jake? Hello?”
For some reason my cousin wasn’t meeting my eyes. He mumbled something about “Cassie’s idea”.
“What? I didn’t hear you.” What was going on? Jake was acting like a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar.
“You didn’t hear me? Uh-oh! Better get Verizon on the case. AT&T. T-Mobile. Rachel can’t hear the wise words of Marco the Magnificent. This is a national tragedy!”
I sighed. “Marco, if I ever wanted your opinion, I would – oh, wait. I would never want your opinion. At any time, any place, or any possible alternate dimension. So why don’t you crawl back into your cage before the lab reports you missing?”
Marco placed his hands over his heart. “Xena: Warrior Princess strikes again! I’m wounded. I’m torn. I’m hit. Somebody call A&E.”
Our fearless leader and my best friend wanted to rob a pet store, Marco was being Marco, and I was the voice of reason. This day couldn’t get any stranger.
*
Not sure if I used punctuation correctly in this paragraph with the dashes:
“You – ” I pointed at Jake “– think it’s a good idea to go to the pet store, distract the counter staff and release all the animals, and you –” it was Cassie’s turn now “– see nothing wrong with that?”
Should the dashes be outside the quotation marks instead? Like this:
“And you,” – it was Cassie’s turn now – “see nothing wrong with that?”
Really enjoyed this piece – humorous with a little sarcasm thrown in. To me the first example for the punctuation looks fine, but the second one seems to make more sense because the pauses for the dashes are around the narration. Great piece though! : )
Thanks! You’re right about the dashes, the pauses belong to the narration. Makes sense. And glad you enjoyed the piece! The characters aren’t mine, they’re from one of my favorite book series, the Animorphs. It was published in the 1990s, but would recommend it if you can find it!
Okay. This is great, because, I have always wondered about those buggars. Thanks so much, my writing is getting better and better.
This is when I’m glad I natively speak German, a language where this is precisely regulated – always outside quotation marks unless it’s part of the quote. Tadaa.
“Ja, genau”, stimmte ich zu.
“Must thou speak of yourself in third person?”, we asked, “thou seemth stuck up.”
Sonic the Hedgehog stared at the bridge. Plenty of boards were missing, and a few were rotting. But it was doable.
“I’m with Shadow on this one,” said Knuckles, the one and only echidna. He folded his arms as Sonic edge closer to the bridge to peer over the edge into the black abyss below. “This is ridiculous. Can’t we just walk around the death hole like normal people?”
Tails the Fox flicked a glance from multiple dangling wooden boards to the abyss beneath. “It looks dangerous, Sonic. I mean, the whole thing could break.”
“We could die!” Knuckles threw up his arms.
A grin lit up Sonic’s face. “That’s what makes it fun. After all, someone once said, ‘Better to have lived and lost than to never have lived at all’.”
Knuckles slapped his forehead. “I don’t think that’s how it went.”
“Come on, guys, it’ll be fine.” Sonic glanced from Tails to Knuckles. “I can run at the speed of sound, Tails can fly–”
“See any wings on my back?” Knuckles said, stomping over to Sonic. “And I’m a fast runner, but not fast enough to beat the rest of the boards to the other side before they fall off their ropes and plummet into that abyss with me screaming after them.”
Sonic smirked. “If you’re that worried, I’ll carry you.”
Before Knuckles could give Sonic an earful so loud it would rattle the hedgehog’s brains and maybe even knock his teeth clear out through the back of his head, Sonic pivoted and darted for the bridge.
—
Any feedback/comments are welcome. The characters are from the Sonic the Hedgehog game/TV show series. Thanks for the article and the prompt, Liz! I didn’t realize there were instances where we’re supposed to put the punctuation outside of the quotes. : )
I’m loving all the posts about punctuation here lately! Please, keep them coming! Punctuation is so tricky when English is not your first language! Some of the rules are the exact opposite of the ones for my mother tongue. Thank you for the brilliant post, Liz!
So, not only have us speakers of ‘English’ on west side of ‘the pond’ lost our English accents across time but also our knowledge of where and how to punctuate quotations. “Can we push the reset button on this?” I ask. Is there an historical explanation for how we’ve come so apart?
Beautifully stated Liz.
Thank you. I told my kids, “You can never get enough grammar advice.”