: Properly punctuate a quote I am trying to learn to properly punctuate a quote, for example If I have I said "Let us go" and we left. Do I put a comma before or after the quote?
I am trying to learn to properly punctuate a quote, for example If I have
I said "Let us go" and we left.
Do I put a comma before or after the quote?
Do I put a period after the word go before the end quote?
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@Annie587
There is no single answer. Even if I knew which country's audience you wanted to write for, there are always variations.
The most common punctuation in North America (but not the only one) is:
I said, "Let's go," and we left.
In North America, if asked to use British punctuation, we would punctuate it differently.
I said, 'Let's go', and we left.
Before I get lambasted about it not actually being done this way in the UK, I have to make several points.
First, it's exactly what the University of Oxford Style Guide (page 16) says to do. Granted there may be other authoritative British style guides (similar to North America's The Chicago Manual of Style or The Associated Press Stylebook), but, if so, I'm not aware of them. (I welcome all input on this in comments.)
Second, Oxford does not say to always put punctuation outside of the final quotation mark. It qualifies such a statement by adding that "if the quote would have required punctuation in its original form, place the punctuation inside the quotation marks."
In other words, the following punctuation is correct (per Oxford):
Bob, do you like cheese? -> ‘Bob,’ I asked, ‘do you like cheese?’
Here, the comma goes inside the quotation marks because the quotation itself has a comma. Which is why you sometimes see punctuation inside and sometimes see punctuation outside. It's not an all-or-nothing rule but has precise conditions.
Last, I know that even though a style guide says to do something that doesn't necessarily reflect what people (or publishers) actually do. It's possible that Oxford is not reflective of reality. But I can only go by the objective standards I have access to. I do know that every fiction book I've read that's been published in the UK uses this style of punctuation. (Non-fiction books, and other media, could well be different.)
But the bottom line is that there is no single answer to this. In North America, specifically, the first example I gave is most common. But there are several other styles that could be used.
I said: "Let's go." And we left.
I said, Let's go, and we left.
"Let's go" (I said)—and we left.
And, North American confusion and incorrect stereotypes aside, British punctuation will have just as many acceptable variations.
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@Karen856
It's not a simple question, and it depends where you are, whether it's direct speech or attribution, and whether all or part of what was said is being quoted (like this from a UK source).
Punctuation outside the quotation marks in dialogue looks weird to a British audience - it's something others say we do, like having bad teeth or talking like Dick Van Dyke in "Mary Poppins", but with less justification.
It gets worse, though, and the phase you've picked demonstrates this :
I said "Let us go," and we left. [I said "Shall we depart?" and we followed that suggestion.]
I said "Let us go", and we left. [I said "Release us", they did, and we departed.]
Both seem to work depending on the context, and the second fits the idea that what's inside the quotation marks is not a complete account - there will have been dialogue or at least a physical response from our captors, so this agrees with The Guardian on where to put the comma.
There's significant UK bias in my answer, so I'm hoping others will add perspectives from other English speaking (and writing) lands.
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