Why is the question mark sometimes placed outside the quotes?

1 Answer
Jun 30, 2016

It all depends on the context of the quote.

Explanation:

Question marks and whether or not we place them on the inside or outside of a quotation depends on whether the person (or thing [a traffic sign or welcome sign for example]) quoted is asking a question. If the person (being quoted) is asking a question then the question mark is placed inside the quotation marks. Like this:

Harley asked, "Can I have dessert before dinner?"

Harley asked a question. What Harley said is within the quotation marks because she asked a question. The fact that she asked a question is indicated by the termination of the quote with a question mark. Here's a picture that might better explain the concept:

enter image source here
Image is my own work, edited with Google Drawings.

If however the person being quoted is not asking a question but the entire sentence is in the form of a question then the question mark is placed outside of the quotation marks (we sometimes use quotation marks for chapters of books, song titles, or newspaper/ magazine article titles). For example:

What do you think of the line "beautiful scars on critical veins"?

Let's dissect what's going on here. So the person that's speaking is asking a question (in this case someone's opinion) however the line "beautiful scars on critical veins" is the specific statement the speaker want's someone's opinion on. Again, here's a picture to help us better understand this:

enter image source here
Image is my own work, edited with Google Drawings.

So if the question mark is on the outside of the quotation marks the entire previous sentence is a question. If the question mark is inside of the quotation marks then only the quote is in the form of a question.

These same rules apply to exclamation points. Unfortunately other forms of punctuation such as periods , commas , and semicolons are more complex with regards to their rules.

I hope this helps!