Nested Quotation
A quotation inside another quotation, distinguished by alternating single and double marks.
A nested quotation is a quotation that appears inside another quotation. The English convention is to alternate the marks: if the outer quotation uses double marks, the inner uses single; if the outer is single (as in British practice), the inner is double. When a third level appears — a quotation inside a quotation inside a quotation — the pattern alternates again.
The mechanical rule is simple; the readability problem is not. Three levels of nesting is the practical maximum before the reader loses track of who is speaking. Beyond that, the writer should restructure: break the outer quotation into a block, paraphrase one of the layers, or introduce the innermost speaker separately.
American and British conventions differ at the outer layer. American practice puts double marks outside and single inside; British practice traditionally reverses this, though modern British publishing has largely adopted the American arrangement. Whichever choice is made, it must be applied consistently across the piece.
Common mistake: forgetting to close every level of nesting in the correct order. The reader's eye must be able to trace 'inner opens, inner closes, outer closes' cleanly. A missing inner-closer that leaves the reader unsure which mark ends which quotation is not a stylistic quirk — it is a bug.
“She recalled the moment: "He looked at me and said, 'You are, quite simply, wrong,' and left."”
Keep reading the glossary
The punctuation that signals direct speech or a quoted phrase — single or double, depending on locale.
A national style difference — double in American English, single in much of British English.
Square brackets mark editorial changes inside a quotation — clarifications, edits, or [sic].
A long quotation set off as its own indented paragraph, without quotation marks.