full stop before or after speech marks?

Question

This is the end of my story

He looked at the picture for a few minutes, smiled and finally said “I will miss you”

Does the full stop go before or after the speech mark to end my story?

Answer 1

American style, inside the quotation marks:

He looked at the picture for a few minutes, smiled and finally said “I will miss you.”



UK style, outside the quotation marks:

He looked at the picture for a few minutes, smiled, and finally said 'I will miss you'.

Answer 2

Full stop inside the speech mark, like this:



He looked at the picture for a few minutes, smiled and finally said “I will miss you.”

Answer 3

In this case, full stop has to be after the speech mark, since it completes your sentence. A seperate full stop within the quotes is not required as the one outside the quote will serve that purpose too.

Answer 4

After.

Answer 5

Actually, it depends on where you live!



If in the US, the period (full stop) goes inside the quote mark.



If you're in the UK. it goes after the quote mark.



There are numerous such differences in English as used in the UK and the US.

Answer 6

If the quoted words end with a full stop, then the full stop goes inside the quotation marks. If the quoted words do not end with a full stop, then the full stop goes outside the quotation marks:

•He said: "I love you."

•She has read "War and Peace".



Note that in US English, the full stop usually goes inside the quotation marks in all cases:

•He said: "I love you."

•She has read "War and Peace."



However, US English adopts the British style for question marks and exclamation marks:

•He said: "Do you love me?"

•Have you read "War and Peace"?

•Can you imagine? He has never read "War and Peace"!

- Source http://www.englishclub.com/writing/punctuation-quotation-marks.htm