Rules for quotation marks in dialogue?

[Diane]

Hi,

What are the rules for spoken dialogue and quotation marks?

I tried to find a set pattern by looking here (https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/...), but some quotes used 'single-quotes,' others used "double quotes," some a mix of both.

Also, what do we do at the end of the quote when quotation marks are automatically cut off?

Thank you :)

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Diane wrote: "What are the rules for spoken dialogue and quotation marks?"

That depends on both language and country. For example, the rules in the US and the UK regarding single and double quotation marks are more or less reversed.

[Diane]

So for a quote like this https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1034...
I should just leave it as is?

[rivka, Former Moderator]

That's not a single quote mark. It's an apostrophe indicating that everythin' is a shortened version of everything.

[Diane]

Oh no haha, I was asking if the use of double quotation marks around the spoken word is correct since the dialogue is technically a quotation within a quotation (ie. Joe said, "I heard Billy say, 'Emma was the one.'"). I'm guessing from your lack of comment that the quote is fine as it is.

Sorry for the confusion!

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Ah, thanks for clarifying what you meant.

If we were going to add double quotes for that, I think about half would have them. And I don't think it would add any clarity, and it would require using a lot of hand-typed HTML.

So while technically a quote like that should probably have them, it's not practical.