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Home/Common Mistakes/Writing/All Other Punctuation/How to use full stops with quotation marks

How to use full stops with quotation marks

If the quotation ends with a full stop, then the full stop goes inside the quotation marks.

  • He said, ‘I love you.’
    (I love you is the complete quotation, so the full stop is part of the quotation.)

If the quotation doesn’t end with a full stop, then the full stop goes outside the quotation marks.

  • He described the woman as ‘stunning’.
    (Stunning isn’t the complete quotation, so the full stop isn’t part of the quotation.)

It is the same with question marks and exclamation marks.

  • He said, ‘How can I love you?’
    (The question mark is part of the quotation.)
  • Did he describe the woman as ‘stunning’?
    (The question mark isn’t part of the quotation.)
  • He shouted, ‘Don’t jump!’
  • I can’t believe he said she was ‘stunning’!