Grammar Question: When you're ending a sentence with a quote...

AreaCode707

Lifer
Sep 21, 2001
18,447
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Punctuation goes inside the quote.

He said, "I think this is the right way," and she answered, "You're right!"
 

Xstatic1

Diamond Member
Sep 20, 2006
8,982
50
86
argh. i thought it depended on the actual quote (like if it required a period, question mark, exclamation pt, etc) and the location within the sentence.
 

sjwaste

Diamond Member
Aug 2, 2000
8,757
12
81
American is inside the quote, British is outside, as far as I've been able to tell. Both are correct.
 

Xstatic1

Diamond Member
Sep 20, 2006
8,982
50
86
American is inside the quote, British is outside, as far as I've been able to tell. Both are correct.

whew! :)

so i've had a few minutes to think about this....

methinks the quotes are dependent if it requires any punctuation like an exclamation point, question mark, or period along with it...and if the contents of the quotes are an actual name not part of a dialogue.
 

nageov3t

Lifer
Feb 18, 2004
42,808
83
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inside.

the one exception I make is with questions... when the overall sentence is a question but the specific quote is not, I'll put the question mark on the outside to indicate that it's me asking the question, not the quote.
 

Nik

Lifer
Jun 5, 2006
16,101
3
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It depends on the punctuation and the statement inside the quote.

Here are some examples:

I asked him, "Where did you park?"

What would you say to someone if they ran up to you and screamed "OH MY GOD!"?
 

Colt45

Lifer
Apr 18, 2001
19,720
1
0
"A full sentence by itself goes inside."

She asked "WTF are you doing?". <- two puncts, cause they're different.

He said "A full quoted sentence in another sentence gets it outside, if they have the same punctuation".
not .".

He then said "If they have different punctuation, you can have both!".

Something like that, IIRC. BrE.
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
60,239
10,685
126
I generally like the punctuation outside the quote(excepting exclamation or question mark). I think it looks better that way, and it doesn't matter to me if it's correct or not. It's easily understood, so I don't care about petty rules.
 

yankeesfan

Diamond Member
Aug 6, 2004
5,922
1
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I do it in the more logical fashion, regardless of what poser grammar-nazis tell me. I know that I am always in the right.