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My specific problem right now is whether to use

"What time is it?" she asked.

Or

"What time is it," she asked.

Or something else. But I find myself having issues with punctuation and quotation marks all the time, so I really want to know the general rules around it.

Eilia
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ewok
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    Consult the manual of style you choose or the one that is thrust upon you. I use The Chicago Manual of Style, which will advise that since you're quoting a question, you'll need a question mark after "it." – deadrat Jun 19 '15 at 03:08

1 Answers1

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Since you are quoting a question, you need to put the question mark within the quotation marks. It is a quoted question.

Ex: "What time is it?" she asked. [From your example itself]

But in cases where you are questioning a given statement, then you need to put the question mark outside the quotation marks. The entire statement is in question here.

Ex: Did she ask, "it is noon already"?

When a given statement and quoted words are both questions, put the question mark within the quotation marks.

Ex: Did she ask, "what time is it?"

mindfultrails
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