In American English, the period or comma always falls inside the closing quotation mark, writes June Casagrande, while the placement of other marks depends on use. News. Sports. TimesOC.

I love finding examples of random quotation marks in sentences. I've written about this amusing practice before, but I was determined to find fresh examples after a reader asked about them recently.

But if quotation marks are there just to point out we’re talking about the word “fella,” folks argued, the period should come at the end of the sentence: Joe never uses the word “fella”.

If something appears between quotation marks, these people say, it ought to be the literal words of […] Skip to content. All Sections. Subscribe Now. 64°F. Thursday, June 12th 2025 ...