I don’t recall ever being taught this.
In: 2
If I were to answer this, I might say, “American English uses double quotation marks except when one quote appears inside another, in which case single quotation marks or ‘inverted commas’ are used.”
I would then recall that Reddit is international and add, ‘British English requires the reverse; except when one quote is inside another, use single quotation marks. Both use the same standard for all uses of quotation marks, including “scare quotes”, which are used to indicate a level of skepticism about the term in quotation marks or convey that it is being used ironically.’
Having answered thusly, I would add, “Other variations of global English tend to adhere to one of these two standards (at least where quotation marks are concerned). Which one a country uses may be related to its geographical location or history of colonization.”
Then, I would say something about how quotation marks are not properly used for emphasis, which is more clearly conveyed using bold or italicized text to avoid confusion with the ironic use. (Avoid being “misunderstood”!)
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