Learn English – What’s the difference between using single and double quotation marks/inverted commas

differencespunctuationquotation marks

I'm quite unsure regarding the usage of single quotation marks (') and double quotation marks (") in English.

I had thought that double quotation marks were usually used to quote sentences from passages/given sources, nouns/things ("Westminster Bridge", "alliteration", or "voice" regarding its usage in poetry), as well as some less common/important uses including being snarky and using them to indicate a sarcastic remark.

Someone had told me today that you were supposed to refer to things with two inverted commas (") instead of one.

Which one is correct? Could someone explain the usages between the two different types of quotation marks?

Best Answer

This is simply a question of style. Wikipedia has a huge article on the subject. The passages most relevant to your question are:

Quotations and speech
Single or double quotation marks denote either speech or a quotation. Neither style—single or double—is an absolute rule, though double quotation marks are preferred in the United States, and both single and double quotation marks are used in the United Kingdom. A publisher’s or author’s style may take precedence over national general preferences. The important rule is that the style of opening and closing quotation marks must be matched[.]

[...]

Use–mention distinction
Either quotation marks or italic type can emphasize that an instance of a word refers to the word itself rather than its associated concept. [...] A three-way distinction is occasionally made between normal use of a word (no quotation marks), referring to the concept behind the word (single quotation marks), and the word itself (double quotation marks). [...] In common usage, there may be a distinction between the single and double quotation marks in this context; often, single quotation marks are used to embrace single characters, while double quotation marks enclose whole words or phrases[.]

Emphasis mine. Read the entire article for further insight.

Related Topic