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In or Out?

© Barb Alexander

Please note: The following rules apply to American English only.

A period always goes inside the quotation marks.

• The pizza connoisseur declared, "I'd rather have lunch at Pizza Hut."

• The review board decided that the sentence was "a bit too lenient."

A question mark or exclamation point may go inside or outside the quotation marks, depending on the circumstance.

Inside (when the information in quotes is related to the mood of the punctuation)

• With a broad smile, Dorothy clicked her heels and cried, "There's no place like home!"
  It sounds as if Dorothy was excited when she made this statement ("she cried,"), so her words get the exclamation point and it goes inside the quotes.

• The confused student wondered aloud, "What the heck is a malapropism?"
  The student is doing the wondering, so their words-the ones in quotes-get the question mark, which goes inside the quotes.

Outside (when the information outside the quotes is related to the mood of the punctuation)

• What? You think my prices are "exorbitant"?
  The speaker is questioning the use of the word "exorbitant," but the person who used the word probably wasn't using a questioning tone when they said it.

• I can't believe she told me, "Your grammar rules are bunk"!
  The exclamation point refers to the speaker's part of the sentence; the speaker is angry and/or offended at the statement made about grammar rules.

And you can quote me on that!

The copyright of the article In or Out? in English Grammar is owned by Barb Alexander. Permission to republish In or Out? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.