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Exclamation Points with Quotation Marks

How do you punctuate if something in quotes ends in a necessary exclamation point or question mark but the sentence continues?

The Chicago Manual of Style offers this example:

Tichnick’s angry reply, “I do not know the man!” took us all by surprise.

Note the comma after reply but no comma after the exclamation point.

Posted on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 3:59 pm

2 Comments

2 Responses to “Exclamation Points with Quotation Marks”

  1. Brandy says:
    March 14, 2012 at 10:41 am

    Thank you for your newsletters – they are the very best! I forward them to my son!

    Not sure if there is a past issue, but would you please clarify where the punctuation (comma, period) goes in a sentence when the sentence ends with a quote but the quote is not the entire sentence. For example: We went to the store and on our way Johnny said, “I want candy.” Does the punctuation go inside or outside the ending quote. I always thought the punctuation goes inside, but I’ve seen it both ways.

    Reply
    • Jane says:
      March 14, 2012 at 10:45 am

      Periods and commas always go inside the quotation marks. Question marks, however, follow logic. Let’s change your sentence a little as an example. Can you understand why I was frustrated when Johnny said, “I want some candy”? Since the question is not inside the quotation marks, the question mark goes outside.

      The rules for punctuation with quotation marks are covered both in the hard copy Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation as well as on our GrammarBook.com website.

      Reply

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