Quotation marks (“) are placed at the beginning and at the end of words that are spoken. We often use a speech tag to tell who spoke the words. Look at this example of a quotation:
“Give me liberty, or give me death,” said Patrick Henry.
Notice that we have placed quotation marks before the first spoken word and after the last spoken word.
We use the speech tag said Patrick Henry to tell the reader who is saying the spoken words. Only the words that Patrick Henry actually said are bracketed by the two sets of quotation marks.
Here are more examples:
“It’s time for dinner,” said Mom.
“Be careful,” Bob shouted.
Miss Kelly said, “We will have a math test tomorrow.”
Place quotation marks at the beginning and at the end of a group of spoken words.
▶It’s your turn. Place a set of quotation marks around the spoken words in this sentence: Here is your book said John. Did you figure out what John said? Did you put quotation marks before and after John’s words? Good for you!