Sometimes it just feels like you have too much punctuation to place in a sentence.
You know, when you have a regular punctuation point and you need to place quote marks around something. I bet you wonder if the punctuation mark goes inside or outside of the quote mark. I know I’ve considered this more than once.
The answer—it depends on the punctuation mark. Nice, huh?
Periods and commas always go inside the quote marks, according to Grammar Girl (who you should totally read or listen to as she is a fabulous resource for all things nerdy, by the way).
Semicolons, colons, asterisks, and dashes always go outside the quote marks, Grammar Girl said.
If you have a question mark or an exclamation point, you have to consider the sentence.
If the entire sentence is a question or exclamation, the punctuation goes outside of the quotation marks. If only the part inside the quote is a question or exclamation, you put the punctuation inside the quote marks.
I have nerdy chills just knowing this. I hope you go forward never misusing quotes and punctuation again!
You can read Grammar Girl’s full post on quotation marks and punctuation here.
