Quoted Speech

Maria Kaliuk

Quoted Speech refers to reproducing words exactly as they were originally spoken

Quoting One Sentence

~ She said, “My brother is a student.”

Use comma after she said. Capitalize the first word of the quoted sentence. Put the final quotation marks outside the period at the end of the sentence.

~ “My brother is a student,” she said.

Use comma, not a period, at the end of the quoted sentence when it precedes she said.

Quoting More Than One Sentence

~“My brother is a sportsman. He is participating in competitions,’ she said.

Quotation marks are placed at the beginning and of the end of the complete quote. Notice: There are no quotation marks after sportsman.

~”My brother is a sportsman,” she said. “He is participating competitions.”

Since she said comes between two quoted sentences, the second sentence begins with quotation marks and a capital letter.

Quoting a question or an Exclamation

~He asked, “Where have you been?”

The question marks is inside the closing quotation marks.

~”Where have you been?” he asked.

Since a question mark is used, no comma is used before he asked.

~She said, ”Watch out!”

The exclamation point is inside the closing quotation marks.