MyWiki:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2017 October 8

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October 8

Use of " and dots

There is something I don't understand in English. When we use " does the final " have to be used after the sentence's end or before? For example: Harry Potter said he "did not like his family." or Harry Potter said he "did not like his family". Cheers.Tintor2 (talk) 01:08, 8 October 2017 (UTC)

It varies, depending on where you are. See Full stop#Punctuation styles when quoting. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:21, 8 October 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for the quick response.Tintor2 (talk) 01:22, 8 October 2017 (UTC)

In the example that you gave, neither, because that is not a quote, unless he actually said "[I]/[He] did not like his family." Otherwise, I think you're paraphrasing. I think that you should make sure that you understand what a quote is, and what it isn't. Plasmic Physics (talk) 06:05, 8 October 2017 (UTC)

Just to clarify what Plasmic Physics is talking about above; a quote or "direct speech" would be Harry Potter said "I do not like my family". Your example is a reported or "indirect speech". See Direct and indirect speech. Apologies if I'm stating the obvious. Alansplodge (talk) 14:49, 8 October 2017 (UTC)