I don’t recall ever being taught this.
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It’s like using brackets/parentheses in math or computer code. You can put a parenthetical inside another parenthetical. In English, you do the same thing to put a quote inside another quote by putting the single-quotes inside the double-quotes.
You can also just use single quotes instead of doubles; you see that in old English texts a lot more, I think it’s the last several decades or maybe century that we shifted to using double-quotes by default.
It’s like using brackets/parentheses in math or computer code. You can put a parenthetical inside another parenthetical. In English, you do the same thing to put a quote inside another quote by putting the single-quotes inside the double-quotes.
You can also just use single quotes instead of doubles; you see that in old English texts a lot more, I think it’s the last several decades or maybe century that we shifted to using double-quotes by default.
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”!)
What is happening to our education system someone asked about evolution in a different ELI5
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”!)
What is happening to our education system someone asked about evolution in a different ELI5
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