Use Of Quotation Marks

Quotation marks are used to identify certain words as being the ones a person said. Quotation marks are used to separate the quote from the rest of the sentence or text which is not quoted. Double and single quotation marks are pretty much interchangeable; check the conventions for any specific format you might be using.

He said, “I’m off to the store. Need anything?”

Written on the wall was the quip, “Petrus hic erat.”

“A lazy oaf”: that’s what Mom said you were.

No matter what her professor said, Anna didn’t think she was “over-exuberant”.

Quotation marks always come in pairs; we say the first set “opens” the quote, and the second set “closes” the quote. Make sure the quotes are opened and closed.

They shouted,_The British are coming!”

This sentence is missing the opening quotation marks.

They shouted, “The British are coming!”

As anything within the quotation marks is separate from the text you’ve written, the capitals and punctuation must be those of the quote, not those of your text. For instance, no matter where it is in your sentence, the beginning of a quoted sentence should be capitalized.

The little boy said, “No matter what, I’m not cleaning my room!”

The capital N needs to be there because it belongs to the quote. The exclamation mark goes inside the quotation marks because it belongs to the quote.