Quotation marks here

[Silverobama]

Hi.

Sometimes when I speak English with my friends, I say "quotation marks here" and with my fingers making "...." to mean that the listeners should not understand the word or phrase literally or the word or phrase has another meaning. I wonder if "quotation marks here" is natural. One possible context:

A: I've never broke my promise to anyone.
B: Yes, you've never, quotation marks here, broke your promise to anyone. (A promised B that A would do something for B but broke his promise.)

 

[5jj]

Hi.
I wonder if "quotation marks here" is natural.

It is not.

 

[Silverobama]

I wonder if "quotation marks here" is natural in any context.

 

[kttlt]

I've heard native speakers say "quote-unquote" while making the gesture with their fingers. In fact, I just googled it and it seems to be an expression in English.

exclamation. an expression used before or part before and part after a quotation to identify it as such, and sometimes to dissociate the writer or speaker from it. Collins English Dictionary.

said to show that you are repeating someone else's words, especially if you do not agree. Cambridge Dictionary

 

[PeterCW]

As a native speaker I most commonly see "air quotes" used without any additional comment normally for a single word or short phrase. Often it is done sarcastically.

To simply quote a longer passage there is no special phraseology.

 

[emsr2d2]

Hi.

Sometimes when I speak English with my friends, I say "quotation marks here" and, with my fingers, making make the "...." sign to mean that the listeners should not understand take the word or phrase literally, or that the word or phrase has another meaning. I wonder if "quotation marks here" is natural. One possible context:

A: I've never broken my promise to anyone.
B: Yes, you've never, quotation marks here, broken your promise to anyone. (A promised B that A would do something for B but broke his promise.)

Note my changes above. If you're doing the "air quotes" thing with your fingers, you don't need to say anything at all. They're self-explanatory. If you had to say the sentence without using your hands, I actually think "quotation marks here" would work OK. Alternatively, B would just sarcastically stress the word "never".

 

[jutfrank]

I'd like to repeat what post #6 above says.

The whole idea of the gesture is that you don't say anything. You make the gesture with your fingers, and with your voice you stress the word accordingly.

 

[Skrej]

I frequently do use both the expression "quote/unquote" along with the hand gesture. Not always, but frequently.

It's difficult for me to envision 'quotation marks here' working, though.

 

[Rover_KE]

I've heard native speakers say "quote-unquote" while making the gesture with their fingers. In fact, I just googled it and it seems to be an expression in English.

@kttlt, please read this extract from the forum rules:

You are welcome to answer questions posted in the Ask a Teacher forum as long as your suggestions, help, and advice reflect a good understanding of the English language. If you are not a teacher, you will need to state that clearly in your posts.

To save you the trouble of writing 'Not a teacher' in every post, you can put in a signature line.

 

[kttlt]

To save you the trouble of writing 'Not a teacher' in every post, you can put in a signature line.

I figured the fact my profile info states I'm a Russian learner of English living in Russia and anyone can see that right next to my posts made the signature line redundant. I apologize for misunderstanding the rules. I'll make sure to mention that I am not a teacher when responding to other people's threads from now on.