2 Quotes In One Sentence

Quotation marks are used to identify words that someone has said. You’ll often find them in fiction, where they signify dialogue, the words spoken by the characters. In newspapers, journalists use quotation marks to signify that something is a direct quote from a person in the article. In academic papers, quotation marks can signify that you are quoting material that was written by someone else. Quotation marks always come in pairs; the first set opens the quote and the second set closes the quote.

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American vs. British Quotation Marks

American English and British English differ in the way they use quotation marks. American English uses double quotation marks (“ ”) for quotes and reserves single quotation marks (‘ ’) for quotes within quotes. In British English, the convention is the opposite. Another difference is that in American English, periods and commas go before closing quotation marks. In British English, they go after the closing quotation mark. The guidelines below apply to American English.

Dialogue

When writers become confused about quotation marks, it usually has to do with where to put other nearby punctuation. Below is an example of a conversation between two characters, with their dialogue correctly punctuated.

Martin said, “I’m going over to Jennifer’s house for a few hours.”

“You can’t be serious!” cried Fauntleroy.

“Oh, but I am,” Martin replied.

“How will you get there?” Fauntleroy asked.

“I thought I’d take the bus.”

“And,” Fauntleroy continued, “exactly how long is ‘a few hours’?”

“Probably two or three.”

“Well . . . fine. Tell Jennifer I said hello.”

In the first sentence, Martin makes a declarative statement that ends in a period. The period goes inside the quotation marks. Treat anything within quotation marks as separate from the rest of the sentence you’ve written, and make sure it has its own correct punctuation. If the quote is a full sentence, it must begin with a capital letter, even though it is within the larger structure of another sentence.

The second sentence begins a new paragraph because a different character is speaking. Fauntleroy responds with an outburst, ending with an exclamation mark. When an exclamation mark belongs to the sentence inside the quotation marks, it goes before the closing quotation mark.

In the third sentence, Martin is making another declarative statement. This time, however, the statement is followed by the dialogue tag Martin replied. In dialogue, when a sentence that would normally end in a period is followed by a dialogue tag, the period becomes a comma. It should go before the closing quotation mark.

In the fourth sentence, Fauntleroy’s query ends with a question mark. As with exclamation marks, a question mark goes before the closing quotation mark when it belongs to the sentence inside the quotation marks.

In the fifth sentence, Martin is speaking, but there is no dialogue tag. Writers often omit dialogue tags when the context of a conversation makes it clear who the speaker is.

In the sixth sentence, the dialogue tag Fauntleroy continued appears in the middle of Fauntleroy’s sentence. Notice the placement of the commas after And and continued; commas go before quotation marks. This sentence also contains a quote within a quote, which is enclosed with single quotation marks. Fauntleroy is repeating Martin’s words a few hours.

The final two sentences of the conversation also omit the dialogue tags, because it’s clear which character is speaking in both instances.

Non-Dialogue Quotations

In nonfiction or academic contexts, you may want to quote someone without styling it as dialogue. The same rules for where to put other punctuation in relation to the quotation marks apply. But you should also take care to construct your sentence so that the quoted words fit within it grammatically.

In the second example, the sentence begins in the third person and past tense but abruptly switches to the first person and present tense halfway through the quote. The result is jarring for the reader, and sometimes hard to follow.

Scare Quotes

Occasionally, writers enclose certain terms they wish to distance themselves from in quotation marks. Quotation marks used this way are commonly called scare quotes or shudder quotes. It’s a way of implying that you’re using a term in an unusual way or that you don’t necessarily approve of it. For example:

The scare quotes around sharing economy suggest that it’s not a fully accepted term. Perhaps the writer feels that it’s jargon or just doesn’t like it. But, unless you’re writing for an audience who is totally unfamiliar with the subject, it’s better to leave the quotation marks out and instead provide enough context to make the meaning of the term clear. Overusing scare quotes will quickly annoy readers, so reserve them for terms that truly require them:

In the sentence above, the scare quotes are needed to indicate that the writer is not talking about computer security in general, but rather the term itself.

Because scare quotes usually suggest a sniff of disapproval or sarcasm from the writer, you should never use them purely for emphasis or decoration. A sign outside a restaurant that proclaims Best “Flapjacks” in Town will make people stop and wonder why the flapjacks need the scare quotes. Are they really flapjacks? Or are they some kind of inferior imitation? Likewise, if you write someone a note that says I “love” you, the recipient will probably assume that you meant the exact opposite!

• We use quotation marks with direct quotes, with titles of certain works, to imply alternate meanings, and to write words as words.
• Block quotations are not set off with quotation marks.
• The quoted text is capitalized if you’re quoting a complete sentence and not capitalized if you’re quoting a fragment.

Do commas and periods go inside or outside quotation marks?

• Commas and periods always go inside the quotation marks in American English; dashes, colons, and semicolons almost always go outside the quotation marks; question marks and exclamation marks sometimes go inside, sometimes stay outside.

When to use quotation marks

Quotation marks are for when you want to use someone else’s words in your writing. Let’s say you want to write about something you heard your friend say. You could do it like this:

You can write about the same thing without using the quotation marks, with a couple of changes:

The first sentence contains a direct quote, a quote in which you report the exact words John used. The second sentence contains an indirect quote, which is a paraphrased version of what John said. Quotation marks are used only with direct quotes.

This rule isn’t just for speech. If you’re quoting a written source, you should still put the quote between quotation marks unless you plan to paraphrase it.

Run-in and block quotations

2 Quotes In One Sentence

Direct quotations come in two different forms: run-in and block. Run-in quotations are shorter and they are formatted the same as the surrounding text. Block quotes are long quotes that are separated from the surrounding text. Usually, they appear as a separate paragraph (or series of paragraphs) with a different font, a change in the line spacing, or a wider margin. In any case, block quotes don’t need quotation marks to set them off from the remaining text, even though they are direct quotes.

And in case you’re wondering just how long a quote needs to get for it to be a block quote, it varies from one style guide to another. If you have to follow a style guide, you should check it for best practices. If you don’t have to follow a style guide, set your own rule (like five lines of text makes a block quotation), and stick to it.

Quotation mark rules

The first rule of using quotations is that once they’re opened, they have to be closed. The person reading your work needs to know where the quote starts and where it ends. But that’s an easy one. What about some trickier quotation mark rules?

How To Cite 2 Quotes In One Sentence

Quotations and capitalization

Sometimes, the text inside quotation marks is capitalized, other times it isn’t. Capitalization of the quoted material depends on the material itself—if you’re quoting a complete sentence, you should start the quote with a capital letter, even if the quote is placed in the middle of a sentence:

If you’re quoting a phrase or a part of a sentence, don’t start the quote with a capital letter:

If you’re splitting a quote in half to interject a parenthetical, you should not capitalize the second part of the quote:

Quotation marks and other punctuation marks

Does punctuation go inside or outside quotation marks? This question mostly refers to the sentence-ending punctuation marks—punctuation marks that introduce a quote are never placed within quotation marks.

Sentence-ending punctuation is a whole different story. In the United States, the rule of thumb is that commas and periods always go inside the quotation marks, and colons and semicolons (dashes as well) go outside:

“There was a storm last night,” Paul said.

Peter, however, didn’t believe him. “I’m not sure that’s exactly what happened.”

Peter was aware of what he called “Paul’s weakness triangle”: he was half deaf, slept like a log, and was prone to lying.

Paul saw an argument coming, so he muttered only “But I saw it”; this was going to be a long night and he didn’t want to start it with a fight.

Question marks and exclamation points have their own rules.

If they apply to the quoted material, they go within the quotation marks. If they apply to the whole sentence, they go outside it:

Sandy asked them, “Why do you guys always fight?”

Did the dog bark every time he heard Sandy say “I’m bringing dinner”?

Citing 2 Quotes In One Sentence

Quotes within quotes

So now you know how to deal with quotation marks and punctuation and capitalization, but what if the quote you want to take already contains quotation marks? This can happen, too. Say you want to write a direct quote in which someone is praising their favorite chapter from one of the Harry Potter books. Would you do it like this?

““The Dementor’s Kiss” is my favorite chapter in the whole series,” Tom said.

It doesn’t work, does it? You might even manage to confuse your word processing program. But if you do it like this, everything will look much better:

“‘The Dementor’s Kiss’ is my favorite chapter in the whole series,” Tom said.

See how that worked better? We use single quotation marks for quotes within quotes.

Other uses of quotation marks: titles of short works, words as words, scare quotes

Besides setting off other people’s words, quotation marks have a couple of other uses. Depending on the style guide you’re using, you might use quotation marks to emphasize titles of all types of compositions (AP Stylebook), or just short compositions (most of the other style guides). Titles of books, albums, magazines, newspapers, and other standalone and bigger bodies of work are usually italicized. Poems, chapters, articles—smaller bodies of work, or bodies of work which form a larger body of work—are emphasized by using quotation marks.

You can also use quotation marks to signify words used as words. For example: “inhale” means to take a breath. The quotation marks show that you’re talking about the word itself, not the action of inhaling. However, you’ll often hear that it’s better to italicize words used as words rather than put them in quotation marks—different style guides might prescribe different rules.

Some writers put quotes around words they want to distance themselves from. Quotation marks used this way are commonly called scare quotes or shudder quotes. It’s a way of implying that you’re using a term in an unusual way or that you don’t necessarily approve of it:

Scare quotes are sort of like air quotes, and if you know anything about air quotes, you know that they should be used in moderation. The same applies to scare quotes.

You might see quotation marks used instead of parentheses for translations. So you can write translations like this:

She told him bonjour (good day) when they met.

But you can also do it like this:

She told him bonjour, “good day,” when they met.

Single quotation marks

We’ve already mentioned that single quotation marks can be used for quotes within quotes. But that’s not all they can do—they can also be used instead of parentheses for translations, but in that case, they don’t have to be separated by commas:

She told him bonjour ‘good day’ when they met.

Multiple Sentences In Quotes

Highly specialized terms in certain fields can also be written within single quotation marks:

Many scholars still argue about Lacan’s ‘desire’ and its implications.

Sentence With Quotes

You can also see single quotation marks instead of double quotation marks in headlines of newspaper articles. And of course, all of these rules apply to American English—single vs. double quotation marks is a whole different story in British English.