Inverted Commas Rules and Usage

How to Use Inverted Commas

Inverted commas, also known as quotation marks, are punctuation marks used in pairs to show where direct speech or a quotation begins and ends in a sentence. They are used to enclose the exact words used by a speaker. The pair consists of an opening quotation mark and a closing quotation mark.

Inverted commas can be single or double. 

Single inverted commas are used in British English.

For instance: 

• She said, ‘I love him.’
• ‘Can we come in?’ she asked.

Double quotation marks are used in British English to quote text within direct speech. We can say, single inverted commas are used for direct speech and double quotation marks to enclose quoted text within. 

For instance: She said, ‘We’ve understood the concept of “Parallelism”. We should now move on to the next one’.

In American writing, double inverted commas are used. 

For instance: 

• She said, “I love him.”
• “Can we come in?” she asked.

And, in case quotation marks are used inside another pair of quotation marks, then single quotation marks are used.

For instance: “Didn’t she say ‘I want a barbie doll’ when I asked her about birthday gift?” he asked her. 

Punctuation, such as question mark, full stop and exclamation mark go inside the speech marks.