What do inverted commas mean

They are also known as quotation marks , speech marks , or quotes. In American English, inverted commas are called quotation marks. In British English, we use single marks more often than the double marks. In British English we use single marks. To indicate a word or phrase being discussed, or a word or phrase directly quoted from somewhere else. In British English, we use single marks. We place punctuation outside the closing quotation mark.

He tweets at StanCarey. Interesting post, Stan. Others are trickier to interpret. Thanks for the example. It sounds like one to watch. I suspect there might be a variety thing going on here — how many of those photos are of UK provenance? I would guess only a minority.

Or maybe other factors are more significant. Back in the day I used to argue with creationists, and on one occasion a particularly zealous Biblical literalist raised the old claim of a museum with a fossil hat among its exhibits.

Whether the problem lay entirely in his inability to acknowledge facts that challenged his belief system, or whether, perhaps, he really did lack the literary proficiency to recognise scare quotes, I will never know. Now, if we assume this person was fully literate in English, there can be no doubt these were scare quotes possibly signalling the objection that the conversation offered free advertising to a proprietary cause, or something.

The familiar conventions of quotation mark use evidently escape many people, those of extended uses like scare quotes even more so. But if your listener had wanted to, I imagine he could have learned from you on the spot. The second stanza:. What are inverted commas? Main uses Inverted commas are mainly used in the following cases: to mark the beginning and end of direct speech i.

In this case, in American English, single or double quotation marks are acceptable but it's important to stick to one way or the other throughout a piece of writing. Any punctuation associated with the word or phrase in question should come before the closing quotation mark or marks:. He called this phenomenon "the memory of water. In British English, the usual style is to use single quotation marks, while any associated punctuation is placed outside the closing quotation mark: Their new single is called 'Curtain Falls'.

What does 'integrated circuit' mean? Word of the day.