Quotation marks (‘ ’) or (“ ”) - Easy Learning Grammar
Direct speech
Direct speech gives the actual words that a speaker used. It is common in novels and other writing where the actual words of a speaker are quoted (see Reporting speech).The words spoken are enclosed in single or double quotation marks.- ‘Have you been to the new shopping precinct yet?’ enquired Shona.
- “I’ve already seen it,” John replied.
- The comma comes inside the quotation marks, unless the reporting verb is positioned inside a reported sentence that itself does not require a comma.
- ‘There is’, Monica said, ‘nothing we can do about it.’
Other uses
Single quotation marks are sometimes used:- to draw attention to a word
- The word ‘book’ can be used as a noun or a verb.
- to indicate an unusual use of a word
- She pointed out that websites used for internet voting could be ‘spoofed’.
- to suggest that the writer want to be distanced from a word.
- I don’t agree with this ‘mercy killing’ business.
- Note that the full stop comes after the quotation marks in such cases.