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Discussion » Questions » Language » What's the story behind why Americans put their punctuation inside quotation marks when the rest of the world does it outside?
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What's the story behind why Americans put their punctuation inside quotation marks when the rest of the world does it outside?

Posted - October 18, 2016
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Responses


  • Americans do it correctly, we're not jerks like everyone else.
      October 18, 2016 5:15 PM MDT
    1

  • 477
    Actually, there are different times when one or the other is more appropriate:
      https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/577/01/ 
      October 18, 2016 5:23 PM MDT
    1
  • Bez

    2148
    Some punctuation marks are appropriate when placed inside quotation marks, others are not.
      October 18, 2016 5:26 PM MDT
    1

  • Are you sure about the rest of the world ? I disagree.
      October 18, 2016 6:53 PM MDT
    0

  • 19937
    I was told the reason went back to the days of manual typesetting.  It was done that way so as not to lose the end quotation marks at the end of the sentence. This post was edited by SpunkySenior at October 19, 2016 9:56 AM MDT
      October 19, 2016 9:55 AM MDT
    0