In writing, quotation marks (“) are placed on either side of spoken words. Quotation marks are always used as a pair. We place one set of quotation marks at the beginning of someone’s words, and we place a second set of quotation marks at the end of someone’s words. We sometimes refer to this as “opening” the quotation and then “closing” the quotation.
Mom said, “I will drive you to school today.”
“That would be great!” I replied.
Notice how the quotation marks come before the spoken words and after the spoken words. Every word between the two sets of quotation marks is a spoken word.
Use quotation marks to show that certain words are being spoken. Place one set of quotation marks in front of the spoken words and the other set of quotation marks at the end of the spoken words.
It’s your turn. Decide where to put quotation marks in this sentence. Bob yelled, Stop the car right now! Did you figure out which words were spoken? Did you put quotation marks before and after those words? Good for you!