Whenever you write the words that someone is speaking, you put quotation marks around the spoken words. You also need to put a comma before or after the speech tag. Look at these examples:
Mom said, “Lock the door when you leave.”
In this sentence, Mom said is the speech tag. The comma goes after the words Mom said and before the quotation.
In this sentence, the quoted words come first:
“Open the door,” said Dad.
Here, the speech tag is after the quoted words. The comma goes right after the quotation, inside the quotation marks.
Here are more examples. Notice where the comma goes in each sentence.
“Be careful,” said Jim.
Betty yelled, “I’m falling!”
“I’ll be right there,” Jim reassured her.
When writing quoted words, a comma goes after a speech tag, before a quote, or right after a quote, before the speech tag.
▶It’s your turn. Place a comma inside this sentence: John said “Today is Wednesday.” Did you figure out where to put the comma? Good for you!