In a sentence where someone is speaking, we use a comma to separate the quote from the speech tag.
Quotation marks ( ” ” )go before and after words that are spoken or quoted. A speech tag is the phrase that names the speaker.
Look at this sentence example:
“It is raining today,” said Bob.
In this sentence, the actual spoken words are placed between two sets of quotation marks: “It is raining today“
Said Bob is the speech tag. The speech tag tells us Bob actually said the words. Notice that the comma sits inside the quotation.
When a sentence begins with a quote, the comma is inside the quotation marks.
When a speech tag comes first, the comma immediately follows the speech tag and sits before the quotation marks.
Bob said, “It is raining today.”
Here are more sentence examples. Pay close attention to where the comma sits in each sentence.
“Don’t bother me,” my little brother yelled.
Mom said, “Stop arguing right now.”
“Be quiet,” Dad interjected, “or I’ll send you to your room.”
Here are the rules for using a comma with a quotation:
When a sentence begins with a quote, put the comma at the end of a quote, inside the quotation marks.
When a sentence begins with a speech tag, put the comma after the speech tag and before the quotation marks.
When the speech tag is in the middle of a sentence, the first comma goes after the first quote, inside the quotation marks, and the second comma goes after the speech tag, before the second set of quote marks.