Gateway to Grammar: How to use speech marks

Crikey Clive, calm down. It’s not that complicated. There are two kinds of speech marks: “quotation marks”, and ‘apostrophes’. They are normally used to represent different things.

“QUOTATION MARKS”

• You are quoting what someone else has said

• You are writing down speech

‘APOSTROPHES’

• You are using a word in an unusual or new way, and you are not quoting someone else. For example, I could begin saying: don’t ‘do a Clive’. I am not quoting someone, this is my own invention.

• I want to talk about a word and not use it as I would normally in a sentence. Here is another example: Gavin’s use of the word ‘Blimey’ refers to an old English form of swearing.

Simply put, actual records of speech in any form is shown with “quotation marks”, and analysis or your own new usage of a word or phrase is ‘apostrophe’.

You better go home Gavin, Clive is off on one again.

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