Depending on the typeface, the opening and closing quotation marks may be identical in form (called “vertical” or “straight” or “typewriter” quotation marks), or they may be distinctly left-handed and right-handed (“typographic” or, colloquially, “curly” quotation marks). The closing single quotation mark is identical or similar in form to the apostrophe, and similar to the prime symbol. However, these three characters have quite different purposes. See also: ditto mark.
Quotation marks show that part of the text is either a person speaking or a quotation. Double quotation marks are used as a rule in the United States, while both single and double quotation marks are used in the United Kingdom and other commonwealth countries. A publisher’s or author’s style can be considered as more important than national preferences. However, the style of opening and closing quotation marks must be matched:
For speech within speech, the other mark is used for inner quotations, within a quotation:
Sometimes, quotations are nested in more than two levels. Nesting levels up to five can be found in some translations of the Bible. 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 which 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 put an opening quotation mark at the first and each subsequent paragraph, but use a closing quotation mark only for the final paragraph of the quotation, as in the following example from the book "Pride and Prejudice":
As noted below, 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:
It is incorrect to use quotation marks for paraphrased speech. This is because a paraphrase is an indirect quote, and in the course of any composition, it is important to document when one is using a quotation versus when one is using a paraphrased idea.
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 an essay—is to recognize 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 (see reported speech).
Another common use of quotation marks is to indicate or call attention to ironic or mis-used words:
Quotes indicating irony, or other special use, are sometimes called scare quotes. They are sometimes gestured in oral speech using air quotes.
Quotation marks are also used to indicate that the writer realizes 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 (also known as jargon), 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:
The "Chicago Manual of Style" (CMS), 15th edition acknowledges this type of use but cautions against overuse in section 7.58, “Quotation marks are often used to alert readers that a term is used in a nonstandard, ironic, or other special sense […] They 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.”
Using either quotation marks or italics 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):
The logic, for this form, 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.
Books about language often use italics for the word itself and single quotation marks for a gloss:
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; however, many styles, especially for poetry, prefer the use of single quotation marks.
As a rule, a whole publication would be italicised, whereas the titles of minor works (such as poems or short stories inside the collection) would be written with quotation marks.
Quotation marks can also offset a nickname embedded in an actual name, or a false or ironic title embedded in an actual title; for example, Nat “King” Cole, Miles “Tails” Prower, or John “Hannibal” Smith.
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, "Cashiers’ desks open until noon for your “convenience”" might mean that the convenience was for the bank employees, not the customers.
With quotation marks that are next to other punctuation marks, there are two main systems. They are called “American” and “British,” but some American writers and organizations use the British style and vice versa. Both systems have the same rules for question marks, exclamation points, colons, and semicolons. They have different rules for periods and commas.
In both systems, question marks and exclamation marks are placed inside or outside quoted material depending on whether they are for the whole sentence or just the quoted words, but colons and semicolons always go outside.
In American style, commas and periods almost always go inside closing quotation marks.
This style of punctuation is common in the U.S., Canada, and it is also used in the U.K. in fiction and journalism.
In British style, which is sometimes called logical punctuation, the rule is the same as for question marks and exclamation points: the comma or period goes outside if it is for the whole sentence but inside if it is for just the quoted words. This is called “placement according to sense.”
When dealing with words-as-words, short-form works like the titles of songs, and sentence fragments, the two systems are different:
For quoting direct speech, American rules place periods and commas inside the quotation marks all the time. In fiction, both styles are the same. In non-fiction, 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. According to the "Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Copy-editors and Proofreaders", periods and commas that "are" part of the person’s speech are permitted inside the quotation marks regardless.