Quatation Marks

[Karen A]

Do quotation marks go inside or outside of the period at the end of a sentence?

 

[rewboss]

It depends. There are differences between American and British convention; I'm British, so I use these rules:

If the quotation marks enclose a word or a short phrase, the full stop/period usually goes outside of the quotation marks:

Queen Victoria said they were "not amused".

If the quotation marks enclose an entire sentence, the full stop/period goes inside the quotation marks:

Queen Victoria said, "We are not amused."

In the first example, we are only quoting a fragment, and this fragment doesn't form a complete sentence on its own; therefore the period doesn't belong to the quoted fragment.

In the second example, we are quoting an entire sentence which begins with a capital letter and ends with a period, so the period belongs to the quotation itself, as well as the longer sentence.

 

[Amigos4]

rewboss says:
It depends. There are differences between American and British convention

I believe the 'American convention' follows the same rule as the British. Please correct me if I am mistaken, rewboss.

Cheers,
Amigos4