Quotation Marks
The punctuation that signals direct speech or a quoted phrase — single or double, depending on locale.
Quotation marks are punctuation that enclose direct speech, a quotation, the title of a short work, or a word used in a non-standard sense. They come in single ('...') and double ("...") variants, plus the curly typographic forms ( '…' "…" ) and the chevron-style guillemets ( «…» ) used in French and other languages.
American English uses double quotation marks by default and reverses to single for a quote within a quote. British English traditionally uses single marks and reverses to double. Both systems are valid; the rule is to choose one and apply it consistently throughout a document.
Modern keyboards type straight quotes ('') by default, but most professional publishing uses smart, curly quotes ('') for visual quality. Search-and-replace utilities and most word processors convert automatically.
“"I have nothing to declare except my genius."”
Keep reading the glossary
A national style difference — double in American English, single in much of British English.
A short quotation embedded directly in a sentence, inside quotation marks.
A long quotation set off as its own indented paragraph, without quotation marks.
Square brackets mark editorial changes inside a quotation — clarifications, edits, or [sic].