From the Grammar Sleuths, helping students understand grammar rules and improve their work! Contact us at grammarsleuths@gmail.com

1. COMMAS AND QUOTATION
MARKS
From the Grammar
Sleuths,
the school’s only
consulting grammar group

2. WHEN TO USE COMMAS There’s 3 of them…

3. INTRODUCTORY AND
INTERRUPTING COMMAS
“So,” I started, “Have you made up your mind?”
The first comma interrupts the quotation
The second comma introduces the rest
REMEMBER TO HAVE BOTH COMMAS!

4. WHEN THE QUOTATION STARTS
THE SENTENCE
“To be or not to be,” I recited.
When the quotation starts the sentence, remember to use a comma

5. WHEN NOT TO USE
COMMAS
There’s 3 of these as
well…

6. USING A QUESTION MARK INSTEAD
“Do you want to go out to lunch?” she asked.
Use a question mark instead of a comma when the question ends before the
sentence does.
All punctuation other than periods and commas must stay out of the quotation
marks, UNLESS it is part of the original quote.

7. GO WITH THE FLOW
Greg called the dish “one of the most disgusting things ever put on
a plate, ever!“
When a quotation flows into a sentence, it doesn’t need a comma

8. BEYOND THE INDEPENDENT
CLAUSE…
REMINDER: An independent clause is a phrase that could be a phrase
on it’s own.
My favorite quote is from BBC Sherlock: “The game is never over.”
Use a colon when the quotation could be part of the sentence, instead of a comma.

9. OTHER RULES TO
REMEMBER
There’s 4 of them…

10. COMMAS INSIDE QUOTATIONS
“The Last Jedi,” according to Will, “could be the AWESOMEST Star
Wars movie yet.”
Even if a comma isn't part of a quotation, if it's part of the sentence, it goes inside
the quotation.

11. “SILENT SPEECH”
Dialogue that is thought, but not spoken doesn’t always have
quotation marks.
Regardless, remember to separate it from the rest of the sentence
with a comma

12. NOT DIALOGUE?
Components of larger works are often encased in their own set of
quotation marks.
They don’t need commas.