When a sentence ends with quoted words, the end punctuation goes inside the final quotation marks.
Dad said, “I’ll be home soon.”
Notice how the period ending the sentence goes inside the final quotation mark. We end the sentence with a period and then put the quotation mark after the period.
Here are more examples:
Our teacher told us, “This test is very important, and you must study!”
Mary wondered, “Will they cancel school if it snows tonight?”
Anytime a sentence ends with quoted words, the end punctuation goes inside the final quotation mark. A period, a question mark, and an exclamation mark are all end punctuation. End punctuation goes inside a quotation mark.
▶It’s your turn. Place a set of quotation marks into this sentence: Billy said, I’m hungry. Did you put quotation marks before and after the words Billy said? Did you put the final quotation mark after the period? Good for you!