this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2025
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Period AFTER the end of a quote.
My buddy Joe told me βI will live and die on this hillβ.
Absolutely. Anyone who has done any programming should recognize that changing what's in the quote is corrupting the data.
If I'm quoting a question though, then it makes sense to include the question mark in the quote.
If the murky depths of my memories of school is correct, the location of the period is dictated by whether or not it is part of the quote. So, if the quote should have a period at the end, it goes inside the quotation marks. If the quote does not include the period (e.g. you are quoting part of a sentence), but you are at the end of a sentence in your own prose, you put the period on the outside of the quotation marks.
So is this correct?
My buddy Joe told me. βI will live and die on this hillβ.
My buddy Joe told me: βI will live and die on this hill.β.
imo.
I hate how much I agree with you in principle and how ugly it looks in practice. With doubled periods, at least - different marks donβt trigger that same reaction. For example, a question mark inside, followed by a period or comma outside feels right.
It's ok to do a partial quote. Leave out the dot.
So wait, you don't care, or you think it should be done a certain way? OP asked what doesn't matter to you at all.
For me in American English it's also the commas that go inside the closing quotation marks, even when they're not part the original quote. I die a little every time I see this, so illogical.
If it's not part of the quote, just leave it outside.
Isn't that how it's done in English (Traditional)?
I'm shocked no one else pointed this out. This isn't a rule of grammar β this is a style rule, which isn't actually part of the English language. Different style guides recommend different things. This happens to be specifically delineated by American/Canadian style guides vs British/Australian style guides; however anyone could publish a style guide. If USA Today decided to make and publish a style guide that they used in their articles that said there should be periods both within and after a quote, that would be valid by that styleguide.