quotation marks
Information about quotation marks
Quotation marks or inverted commas (also informally quotes,[1] and occasionally speech marks) are punctuation marks used in pairs to set off speech, a quotation, a phrase or a word. The pair consists of an opening quotation mark and a closing quotation mark, which may or may not be the same character.
They have a variety of forms in different languages and in different media:
The important rule is that the style of opening and closing quotation marks must be matched:
For speech within speech, the other is used as inner quotation marks:
Omitting quotation marks is generally not recommended.
Sometimes, quotations are nested in more levels than inner and outer quotation. Nesting levels up to five can be found in the Bible.[2] In these cases, questions arise about the form (and names) 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 over 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 the first and each subsequent paragraph opening quotation marks, using closing quotation marks only for the final paragraph of the quotation. The Spanish convention, though similar, 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:
It is generally considered incorrect to use quotation marks for paraphrased speech where they may give the impression that the paraphrasing represents the actual words used.
If HAL says: “All systems are functional.", then:
However, another convention when quoting text in the body of a paragraph or sentence, for example in philosophical essays, is to recognise double quotation marks as marking an exact quotation, and single quotation marks as marking a paraphrased quotation or a quotation where grammar, pronouns or plurality have been changed in order to fit the sentence containing the quotation (this is the same as reported speech).
Quotation marks indicating ironic use of a term should be used with care. Without the intonational cues of speech, they can obscure the writer’s intended meaning. They can also be confused easily with direct quotations, so some style guides specify single quotation marks for this usage, and double quotation marks for verbatim speech.
In a similar sense, quotation marks are also used to indicate that the writer realizes that a word is not being used in its (currently) accepted sense.
Either quotation marks or italic type can emphasize 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 (no quotation marks), referring to the concept behind the word (single quotation marks), and the word itself (double quotation marks):
Books about language often use italics for the word itself and single quotation marks for its translation:
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.[7]
In Early Modern English, quotation marks were used only to denote pithy comments. They first began to quote direct speech in 1714. By 1749 single quotation marks, or “inverted commas”, were commonly used to denote direct speech.[8]
The American English rule is often not applied if the presence of the punctuation mark inside the quotation marks will lead to ambiguity, for example in describing commands to be typed into a computer:
Before the advent of mechanical type, the order of quotation marks with periods and commas was not given much consideration. The printing press required that the easily damaged smallest pieces of type for the comma and period be protected behind the more robust quotation marks.[10] The US style still adheres to this older tradition in formal writing but usually not in everyday use. Today, most areas of publication conform to one of the two standards above. However, in subjects such as chemistry and software documentation it is conventional to include only the precise quoted text within the quotation marks. This avoids ambiguity with regard to whether a punctuation mark belongs to the quotation:
In both styles, question marks and exclamation marks are placed inside or outside quoted material on the basis of logic, but colons and semicolons are always placed outside [11]:
In the first two sentences above, only one punctuation mark is used at the end of each. Regardless of its placement, only one end mark (?, !, or .) can end a sentence in American English.
References: Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition; Hart’s Rules for Compositors and Readers at the University Press, Oxford.
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 requires that a non-breaking space be inserted.
Straight single and double quotation marks are used in most programming languages to delimit strings or literal characters. In some languages (e.g. Pascal) only one type is allowed, in some (e.g. C and its derivatives) both are used with different meanings and in others (e.g. Python) both are used interchangeably. In many 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 eat 'hot' dogs in Pascal one uses 'eat ''hot'' dogs'.
Quotation marks, also called quotes, speech marks or inverted commas, are punctuation marks used in pairs to set off speech, a quotation, or a phrase.
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They have a variety of forms in different languages and in different media:
- For languages other than English see Quotation mark, non-English usage
- For the various glyphs used in computer languages to define quotation marks see Quotation mark glyphs
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Usage
Quotations and speech
Single or double quotation marks denote either speech or a quotation. Neither style is an absolute rule, though double quotation marks are preferred in the United States, and both single and double quotation marks are used in the United Kingdom. A publisher’s or even an author’s style may take precedence over national general preferences.The important rule is that the style of opening and closing quotation marks must be matched:
- ‘Good morning, Dave,’ greeted HAL.
- “Good morning, Dave,” greeted HAL.
For speech within speech, the other is used as inner quotation marks:
- ‘HAL said, “Good morning, Dave,” ’ recalled Frank.
- “HAL said, ‘Good morning, Dave,’ ” recalled Frank.
Omitting quotation marks is generally not recommended.
Sometimes, quotations are nested in more levels than inner and outer quotation. Nesting levels up to five can be found in the Bible.[2] In these cases, questions arise about the form (and names) of the quotation marks to be used. The most common way is to simply alternate between the two forms, thus:
- “…‘…“…‘ … … ’…”…’…â€
If such a passage is further quoted in another publication, then all of their forms have to be shifted over 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 the first and each subsequent paragraph opening quotation marks, using closing quotation marks only for the final paragraph of the quotation. The Spanish convention, though similar, 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:
- “HAL,” noted Frank, “said that everything was going extremely well.â€
It is generally considered incorrect to use quotation marks for paraphrased speech where they may give the impression that the paraphrasing represents the actual words used.
If HAL says: “All systems are functional.", then:
- Wrong: HAL said that “Everything was going extremely well.â€
- Right: HAL said that everything was going extremely well.
- Right: HAL said, “All systems are functional.â€
However, another convention when quoting text in the body of a paragraph or sentence, for example in philosophical essays, is to recognise double quotation marks as marking an exact quotation, and single quotation marks as marking a paraphrased quotation or a quotation where grammar, pronouns or plurality have been changed in order to fit the sentence containing the quotation (this is the same as reported speech).
Irony
Another important use of quotation marks is to indicate or call attention to ironic or apologetic words. Ironic quotation marks can also be called scare, sneer, shock, or distance quotes. Ironic quotation marks are sometimes gestured in oral speech using air quotes:- My brother claimed he was too “busy” to help me.
Quotation marks indicating ironic use of a term should be used with care. Without the intonational cues of speech, they can obscure the writer’s intended meaning. They can also be confused easily with direct quotations, so some style guides specify single quotation marks for this usage, and double quotation marks for verbatim speech.
In a similar sense, quotation marks are also used to indicate that the writer realizes that a word is not being used in its (currently) accepted sense.
- In the fifteenth century, we “knew” that the Sun’s revolution divided day from night.
- Woody Allen joked, “I’m astounded by people who want to ‘know’ the universe when it’s hard enough to find your way around Chinatown.â€
Emphasis (incorrect)
Quotes are sometimes used incorrectly 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. And again - Teller lines open until noon for your “convenience” - might mean that the “convenience” was for the bank employees, not the customers.[3] [4] [5] [6]Use–mention distinction
Either quotation marks or italic type can emphasize that an instance of a word refers to the word itself rather than its associated concept.
- Cheese is derived from milk.
- “Cheese” is derived from a word in Old English.
- Cheese has calcium, protein, and phosphorus.
- Cheese has three e’s.
A three-way distinction is occasionally made between normal use of a word (no quotation marks), referring to the concept behind the word (single quotation marks), and the word itself (double quotation marks):
- When discussing ‘use’, use “use”.
Books about language often use italics for the word itself and single quotation marks for its translation:
- The French word canif 'pocketknife' is borrowed from Old English cnif 'knife'.
Titles of artistic works
Quotation marks, rather than italics, are generally used for the titles of shorter works. Whether these are single or double is again a matter of style:- Short fiction, poetry, etc.: Arthur C. Clarke’s “The Sentinelâ€
- Book chapters: The first chapter of 3001: The Final Odyssey is “Comet Cowboyâ€
- Articles in books, magazines, journals, etc.: “Extra-Terrestrial Relays,” Wireless World, October 1945
- Album tracks, singles, etc.: David Bowie’s “Space Oddityâ€
Nicknames and false titles
Quotation marks offset a nickname embedded in an actual name, or a false or ironic title embedded in an actual title; for example, Nat “King” Cole.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 Holy Bible. During the Renaissance, quotations were distinguished by setting in a typeface contrasting with the main body text (often Italic type with roman, or the other way round). Long quotations were also set this way, at full size and full measure.[7]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.[7]
In Early Modern English, quotation marks were used only to denote pithy comments. They first began to quote direct speech in 1714. By 1749 single quotation marks, or “inverted commas”, were commonly used to denote direct speech.[8]
Typographical considerations
Punctuation
The traditional convention in American English is for commas and periods to be included inside the quotation marks, even if they are not part of the quoted sentence, while the British style shows clearly whether or not the punctuation is part of the quoted phrase. The American rule is derived from typesetting while the British rule is grammatical (see below for more explanation). As with many such differences, the American rule follows an older British standard. The typesetter’s rule was standard in early 19th century Britain; the grammatical rule was advocated by the extremely influential book The King’s English, by Fowler and Fowler.- “Carefree” means “free from care or anxiety.” (American style)
- “Carefree” means “free from care or anxiety”. (British style)
- “Hello, world,” I said. (both styles)
The American English rule is often not applied if the presence of the punctuation mark inside the quotation marks will lead to ambiguity, for example in describing commands to be typed into a computer:
- In the File name text field, type “HelloWorldApp.java”, including the quotation marks.[9]
Before the advent of mechanical type, the order of quotation marks with periods and commas was not given much consideration. The printing press required that the easily damaged smallest pieces of type for the comma and period be protected behind the more robust quotation marks.[10] The US style still adheres to this older tradition in formal writing but usually not in everyday use. Today, most areas of publication conform to one of the two standards above. However, in subjects such as chemistry and software documentation it is conventional to include only the precise quoted text within the quotation marks. This avoids ambiguity with regard to whether a punctuation mark belongs to the quotation:
- Enter the URL as “www.wikipedia.org”, the name as “Wikipedia”, and click “OK”.
- The URL starts with “www.wikipedia.”. This is followed by “org” or “com”.
In both styles, question marks and exclamation marks are placed inside or outside quoted material on the basis of logic, but colons and semicolons are always placed outside [11]:
- Did he say, “Good morning, Dave”?
- No, he said, “Where are you, Dave?â€
In the first two sentences above, only one punctuation mark is used at the end of each. Regardless of its placement, only one end mark (?, !, or .) can end a sentence in American English.
References: Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition; Hart’s Rules for Compositors and Readers at the University Press, Oxford.
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 a 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. These exceptions are ignored by some Asian computer systems that systematically display quotation marks with the included spacing.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 requires that a non-breaking space be inserted.
- So Dave actually said, “He said, ‘Good morning’ ”?
- Yes, he did say, “He said, ‘Good morning.’ â€
Non-language related usage
Straight quotation marks (or italicized 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 minutes, and 50 seconds is written 40° 20' 50". When available, however, the prime should be used instead (e.g., 5′ 6″, and 40° 20′ 50″). Prime and double prime are not present in most character sets, including ASCII and Latin-1, but are present in Unicode, as characters U+2032 (dec. 8242) and U+2033 (dec. 8243), and as HTML entities ′ and ″. They also represent inches of mercury in weather forecasts.Straight single and double quotation marks are used in most programming languages to delimit strings or literal characters. In some languages (e.g. Pascal) only one type is allowed, in some (e.g. C and its derivatives) both are used with different meanings and in others (e.g. Python) both are used interchangeably. In many 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 eat 'hot' dogs in Pascal one uses 'eat ''hot'' dogs'.
Quotations spanning several paragraphs
For a quotation consisting of several paragraphs, especially in older texts, the convention is to start each separate paragraph of the quoted text with an opening quotation mark, but to use a closing quotation mark only at the end of the last paragraph, as in the following example from Pride and Prejudice:- The letter was to this effect:
- "MY DEAR LIZZY,
- "I wish you joy. If you love Mr. Darcy half as well as I do my dear Wickham, you must be very happy. It is a great comfort to have you so rich, and when you have nothing else to do, I hope you will think of us. I am sure Wickham would like a place at court very much, and I do not think we shall have quite money enough to live upon without some help. Any place would do, of about three or four hundred a year; but however, do not speak to Mr. Darcy about it, if you had rather not.
- "Yours, etc."
Glyphs
See also
Notes
1. ^ Katherine Barber, editor (2004). The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, second edition. Toronto, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-541816-6.
2. ^ Jeremiah 27:1-11; 29:1-28, 30-32; 34:1-5; and Ezekiel 1-36
3. ^ [1]
4. ^ [2]
5. ^ [3]
6. ^ [4]
7. ^ Bringhurst (2002), p 86.
8. ^ Truss, Lynne. Eats, Shoots & Leaves, 2003. p. 151. ISBN 1-592-40087-6.
9. ^ Part of a tutorial on Java programming on Microsoft Windows. Those parts of this page which would not be ambiguous follow the American rule
10. ^ [5]
11. ^ [6]
2. ^ Jeremiah 27:1-11; 29:1-28, 30-32; 34:1-5; and Ezekiel 1-36
3. ^ [1]
4. ^ [2]
5. ^ [3]
6. ^ [4]
7. ^ Bringhurst (2002), p 86.
8. ^ Truss, Lynne. Eats, Shoots & Leaves, 2003. p. 151. ISBN 1-592-40087-6.
9. ^ Part of a tutorial on Java programming on Microsoft Windows. Those parts of this page which would not be ambiguous follow the American rule
10. ^ [5]
11. ^ [6]
References
- Bringhurst, Robert (2002). The Elements of Typographic Style, version 2.5. Vancouver, Hartley & Marks. ISBN 0-88179-133-4.
External links
- Curling Quotes in HTML, SGML, and XML
- Beginners guide to quotation marks
- Quotation marks in the Unicode Common Locale Data Repository
- ASCII and Unicode quotation marks – detailed discussion of the ASCII `backquote' problem
- The Gallery of “Misused” Quotation Marks
- Commonly confused characters
- Smart Quotes
- the "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks - A humorous blog listing photos of erroneously used quotation marks.
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Punctuation is everything in written language other than the actual letters or numbers, including punctuation marks (listed at right), inter-word spaces, capitalization, and indentation.
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For the Wikipedia quotation template, see .
Quotation marks, also called quotes, speech marks or inverted commas, are punctuation marks used in pairs to set off speech, a quotation, or a phrase.
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glyphs for quotation marks. This article lists some of these glyphs along with their Unicode code points and HTML entities. The Unicode standard defines two general character categories, “Ps” (punctuation quote start) and “Pe” (punctuation quote end), for
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quotation is the repetition of one expression as part of another one, particularly when the quoted expression is well-known or explicitly attributed (as by citation) to its original source.
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Punctuation is everything in written language other than the actual letters or numbers, including punctuation marks (listed at right), inter-word spaces, capitalization, and indentation.
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apostrophe ( ’ or ' ) is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages written in the Latin alphabet.
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Brackets are punctuation marks used in pairs to set apart or interject text within other text. With respect to computer science, the term is sometimes said to only strictly apply to the square or box type.
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colon (“:”) is a punctuation mark, consisting of two equally sized dots centered on the same vertical line.
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Punctuation
Usage
As with many other punctuation marks, the usage of colon varies among languages and, for a given language, among..... Click the link for more information.
For other uses, see Comma.
A comma ( , ) is a punctuation mark. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline of the text...... Click the link for more information.
A dash is a punctuation mark. It is longer than a hyphen and is used differently.
glyph Unicode[1] HTML[2] HTML/XML[3]
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Common dashes
There are several forms of dash, of which the most common are:glyph Unicode[1] HTML[2] HTML/XML[3]
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Ellipsis (plural ellipses; from Greek ἔλλειψις 'omission') in printing and writing refers to the row of three full stops (… or . . .
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exclamation mark or exclamation point is a punctuation mark: ! It is usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feelings or high volume, and generally marks the end of a sentence.
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Full Stop is an album released in 2000 by Annabelle Chvostek.
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Track listing
- "Icy blue"
- "Messages get through"
- "Body Work"
- "Gray's Pussycat Edie"
- "Chills"
- "Blows me away"
- "La La La"
- "Booby Boo"
- "That in itself"
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Guillemets, also called angle quotes, are line segments, pointed as if arrows (« or »), sometimes forming a complementary set of punctuation marks used as a form of quotation mark.
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hyphen ( ‐ ) is a punctuation mark. It is used both to join words and to separate syllables. It is often confused with the dashes ( –, —, ― ), which are longer and have different functions.
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question mark (?), also known as an interrogation point, question point, query,[1] or eroteme, is a punctuation mark that replaces the full stop at the end of an interrogative sentence.
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A semicolon ( ; ) is a punctuation mark. The Italian printer Aldus Manutius the Elder established the practice of using the mark to separate words opposed in meaning and to mark off interdependent statements.
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Due to technical limitations, /. redirects here. You may be looking for Slashdot, the technology news web site.
A slash or stroke, /, is a punctuation mark...... Click the link for more information.
The solidus character U+2044, ⁄, also known as a shilling mark, is a punctuation mark; it is not found on standard keyboards.
The solidus is similar to the slash, a character found on standard keyboards.
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The solidus is similar to the slash, a character found on standard keyboards.
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Please help recruit one or [ improve this article] yourself. See the talk page for details.
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In writing, a space ( ) is any empty (non-written) zone between written sections. However, the term is usually used to refer to an empty zone used for interword separation (interword space) or separation between punctuation and words.
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An interpunct · is a small dot used for interword separation in ancient Latin script, being perhaps the first consistent visual representation of word boundaries in written language. The dot is vertically centered, e.g.
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Typography is the art and techniques of type design, modifying type glyphs, and arranging type. Type glyphs (characters) are created and modified using a variety of illustration techniques.
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- For the magazine, see Ampersand magazine.
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asterisk (*), is a typographical symbol or glyph. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (Latin astrum). Computer scientists and mathematicians often pronounce it as star (as, for example, in the A* search algorithm
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at sign (@, read aloud in English as "at") is a typographic symbol used as an abbreviation for "at" in accounting and commercial invoices, in statements such as "7 widgets @ $2 ea. = $14". More recently, the at symbol has become ubiquitous because of its use in e-mail addresses.
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The backslash ( \ ) is a typographical mark (glyph) used chiefly in computing. It was first introduced in 1960 by Bob Bemer.[1] Sometimes called a reverse solidus, it is the mirror image of the common slash. It is also known as a slosh.
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In typography, a bullet is a typographical symbol or glyph used to introduce items in a , like below, also known as the point of a bullet:
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- This is the text of a list item. Notice the bullet to the left.
- This is a different list item, and so there is another bullet.
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Caret is the name for the symbol ^ in ASCII and some other character sets. Its Unicode code point is U+005E, and its ASCII code in hexadecimal is 5E. Strictly speaking, the caret character in common use is actually referred to in the Unicode standard as the "CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT"; the
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’ ' )
brackets ( ), [ ], , < >
colon ( : )
comma ( , )
dashes ( ‒, –, —, ― )
ellipsis ( …, ...
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brackets ( ), [ ], , < >
colon ( : )
comma ( , )
dashes ( ‒, –, —, ― )
ellipsis ( …, ...
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