Okay, since the topic drifted anyway, here goes.
US usage
Periods/full stops and commas
always go inside the quotes, regardless of what the quotation marks enclose.
Quote:
John said, "Let's go to the cinema tonight."
"Let's go to the cinema tonight," John said.
Mary called him a "silly goose."
Mary called him a "silly goose," but she didn't really mean it.
|
UK usage
Periods/full stops and commas go
inside the quotes for dialogue, and
outside the quotes for other uses of quotation marks.
Quote:
John said, "Let's go to the cinema tonight."
"Let's go to the cinema tonight," John said.
Mary called him a "silly goose".
Mary called him a "silly goose", but she didn't really mean it.
|
US and UK usage
Question marks and exclamation points go inside the quotes if the question or exclamation is being quoted, or outside if the question or exclamation applies to the narration.
Quote:
Mary asked, "Are we going to the cinema tonight?"
Mary said, 'We're going to the cinema tonight!"
Did you hear Mary call him a "silly bugger"?
OMG! Mary called him a "silly bugger"!
|
Colons and semi-colons go outside the quotes.
Quote:
There was a reason Mary called him a "silly bugger": he was acting like a child.
Mary called him a "silly bugger"; she apologised later.
|
Dashes usually go outside, unless the dash is signifying dialogue that's cut off abruptly mid-sentence. When dialogue trails off, the ellipsis also goes inside the quotes. In essence, dashes and ellipses work like question marks and exclamation points: if it's part of the dialogue, inside quotes; if it's part of the narration, outside quotes.
Quote:
"I demand that you--" John started to say, but Mary cut him off with a sharp gesture.
"I was going to ask..." John couldn't bring himself to finish his sentence.
|