Thread: Full stops (period) and speech marks.

Can anyone advise as to whether a full stop goes inside or outside the speech marks? Probably a really silly question...

Thanks

In British English, it goes outside. In American English, inside.

For dialogue, we all follow the one rule: All punctuation goes inside speech marks, as so: "The police are at the door!" screamed Mark.

As a rule, if the whole of the sentence is speech it goes inside, if the sentence is a mixture, i.e., George turned and said "I put the full stop outside the quotation marks". then it goes outside. If question or exclamation marks are directly related to the speech, they take precedence and go inside. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Originally Posted by Bloggsworth

… George turned and said "I put the full stop outside the quotation marks". …

Actually, here's how it would be handled, at least in the USA:

George turned and said, "I put the full stop outside the quotation marks."

Originally Posted by Bloggsworth

As a rule, if the whole of the sentence is speech it goes inside, if the sentence is a mixture, i.e., George turned and said "I put the full stop outside the quotation marks". then it goes outside.

I've never seen it done like that. The way I've seen it would be: George turned and said, "I put the full stop outside the quotation marks."

I think this might be what you're referring to: George remembered that Bill had said "I put the full stop outside the quotation marks". Since that isn't dialogue but someone else's quote, the speech marks need to go inside the punctuation. When it's dialogue it's always outside, from what I've read and seen.

I've only been writing English for about 62 years, I still haven't got the hang of it...

I looked at this when I first started to write. English have different rules depending on what type of writing it is. My response was to decide that the English can keep their finicky rules & I'll just copy the Yanks (which most seem to do anyway).

Thanks all, I think I will go with English English and stick them outside, but at the end of the day I suppose consistency is all that counts, and when some hot-shot publisher is drooling over my masterpiece they probably won't worry where the full stops are anyway... ;o)

Originally Posted by Bloggsworth

I've only been writing English for about 62 years, I still haven't got the hang of it...

Pretty much this. I'd like to think I'm doing it somewhat right at the moment...

I always thought the full stop went on the outside of the speech marks, if it's the end of a sentence.

This answers all the questions, regarding both American English, and British English:

Quotation Marks: Where Do the Periods and Commas Go--And Why?

If you read the bottom she even explains why the difference of usage between American English and British English came about. It has to do with typewriters! Who would have guessed?

I use English rules. They make more sense. Plus, it's the English language.

Not sure who Tina Blue might be and not sure she's all that definitive. Also, if you look at the difference carefully, it's really not that many instances, especially in fiction.

Exerpted from the largest and most comprehensive resource compendium in the history of the world:

Fowler's A Dictionary of Modern English Usage provides an early example of the rule: "All signs of punctuation used with words in quotation marks must be placed according to the sense."^[16] When dealing with words-as-words, short-form works and sentence fragments, this style places periods and commas outside the quotation marks:

• "Carefree", in general, means "free from care or anxiety".
• The name of the song was "Gloria", which many already knew.
• She said she felt "free from care and anxiety".

When dealing with direct speech, British placement depends on whether or not the quoted statement is complete or a fragment. According to the British style guide Butcher's Copy-editing, American style should be used when writing fiction.^[17]