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In English writing, quotation marks or inverted commas, also known informally as quotes, talking marks, [1] [2] speech marks, [3] quote marks, quotemarks or speechmarks, are punctuation marks placed on either side of a word or phrase in order to identify it as a quotation, direct speech or a literal title or name.
The closing single quotation mark is identical in form to the apostrophe and similar to the prime symbol. The double quotation mark is identical to the ditto mark in English-language usage. It is also similar to—and often used to represent—the double prime symbol. These all serve different purposes.
In any case, a lot of typographers prefer single, as punctuation shouldn't be too obvious, or it overwhelms the text visually. If you're used to single, double looks really garish. kwami 19:53, 8 November 2007 (UTC) It's unambiguous: "Quotations are enclosed within "double quotes". Quotations within quotations are enclosed within 'single quotes'."
(The use of single quotation marks here rather than double quotation marks is standard linguistics usage when indicating a meaning of a previous word or phrase regardless of whether in the article as a whole double quotation marks or singlular quotation marks are used for top level quoting.
Since quotations are already marked by quotation marks or indentations, they need not be italicized. It is probably best to use the "double quotes" for most quotations, as they are easier to read on the screen. Use 'single quotes' for "quotations 'within' quotations," or to mark words for attribution.
Quotation marks ( ‘ ’ , “ ” , ' ' , " " ) are used in pairs to set off quotation, with two levels for distinguishing nested quotations: single and double. North American publishers of English texts tend to favour double quotation marks for the primary quotation, switching to single for any quote-within-a-quote, while British and ...
Logical quotation style and the quotation styles used in many British publications (and others that follow their style guides) are often actually different, based on different rationales. In particular, British usages (yes, they are plural) tend to put punctuation outside of quotations even when it does belong there logically.
The ditto mark is a shorthand sign, used mostly in hand-written text, indicating that the words or figures above it are to be repeated. [1] [2]The mark is made using "a pair of apostrophes"; [1] "a pair of marks " used underneath a word"; [3] the symbol " (quotation mark); [2] [4] or the symbol ” (right double quotation mark).