How to Punctuate Dialogue (UK)
You may have noticed that the US and the UK have different rules for certain things. For example, learn about the difference in how the US and the UK use dashes here. Another difference is how they punctuate dialogue and quotes – namely, the use of quotations marks.
To learn about punctuating dialogue in the US, read this post. To learn about how to punctuate dialogue in the UK, keep reading!
For dialogue and quotes, use single quotations. (The US uses double quotations.) If you want to use scare quotes, that’s also single quotations. Here are some examples:
‘Go home,’ she said.
But I don’t want to ‘act like I’m not here’ and stay in my room.
Some people choose to use double quotation marks instead of single, but strict UK rules call for single. To learn more about breaking the rules, click here.
Punctuation to Introduce Quotes
If there is a dialogue tag (he said, she wrote, they replied), you need a comma. The comma should come between the dialogue tag and the dialogue.
Susan said, ‘I want to go shopping.’
‘I want to go shopping,’ Susan said.
‘I want’, Susan said, ‘to go shopping.’
[Tip: Notice how the comma sometimes goes inside the quotation marks and sometimes outside. That’s not random. We will talk about that later.]
You don’t need a comma if the introduction to the quote is not a dialogue tag and it is instead incorporated into the sentence.
Susan said she wanted to ‘go shopping’.
[Tip: Notice how this example of dialogue does not start with a capital letter because the sentence is not set off with a dialogue tag; it’s incorporated into the sentence. Although the phrases in quotation marks could be complete sentences, they don’t reflect the intended meaning of the sentence. It’s out of context.]
Use a colon following an independent clause to introduce a quotation. It may include a formal introductory phrase, if necessary, such as ‘the following’.
I remember what Susan said: ‘I want to go shopping.’
He said the following: ‘I want to go home.’
Does Punctuation Go Inside or Outside the Quotes?
Now let’s talk about the order of punctuation. Sometimes the end punctuation goes inside the quotation marks, and sometimes it goes outside. It depends on what’s inside the quotation marks. If whatever is inside would need a period at the end, put the period or comma inside the closing quotation mark. If it would not have a period at the end, put the punctuation outside the quotation marks. Let’s use this sentence as an example: ‘I think we need to talk.’
‘I think we need to talk,’ he said. (Period needed after ‘talk’, so punctuation inside.)
‘I think’, he said, ‘we need to talk.’ (No period needed after ‘think’, so punctuation outside.)
This rule applies to all punctuation, whereas in the US, the rule changes based on the punctuation mark. Here are some more examples with different punctuation marks.
‘Please, sir,’ he begged, ‘will you let me inside?’ (Comma naturally comes after ‘sir’, so punctuation inside.)
He asked me to ‘bring the stuff’. (No punctuation needed after ‘stuff’ since this quotation is incorporated into the sentence, so punctuation outside.)
Did she sing you ‘Yellow Submarine’? (Question mark applies to entire sentence rather than what’s in the quotation marks, so punctuation outside.)
‘You’, he yelled, ‘were too late!’ (No comma is needed after ‘you’, so punctuation outside.)
‘You were too late!’ he yelled. (I used this example again to show that the exclamation mark still goes inside the quotation mark because the quotation needs it regardless of the dialogue tag.)
I hope that helps you understand how to punctuate dialogue! Now you know how to do it for US style and for UK!
[If this post looked a little different, it might be because I used New Hart style guide (UK style) when writing it. I normally use Chicago Manual of Style (US style) for my other posts. This includes the difference in spelling: single and double quotation marks.]