Comma inside quotes

Question

Is it correct to have a comma inside the quotes below for this excerpt from a story, or should it be outside?

Bob wanted to see the world and meet other people; he would watch the planes fly past and thought, "Why can't I travel too," but he couldn't afford it, after all, he was only a young boy.

Hugely related and possibly a duplicate: In British English is the comma correctly placed outside the ending quote mark in this sentence? — Andrew Leach, Feb 12 '20 at 18:17
In British English, the comma going inside isn't even an option. In American English, it depends on your style guide, but ideally it should go neither inside nor outside the closing quote, but directly underneath it, and it should do so for purely æsthetic reasons and no other reasons. — RegDwigнt, Feb 12 '20 at 20:02

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 12 '20 at 19:14

1

There can be no comma - a questionmark is required. "... he would watch the planes fly past and thought, "Why can't I travel too**?**" but he couldn't afford it[no comma] after all,

answered Feb 12 '20 at 19:14

Greybeard

41,737

Apologies. I was focusing on providing an example to ask whether the comma should be correctly placed outside the ending quote mark and missed the fact that it was a question. With regards to the [no comma] you added, is this not a valid place for a pause comma? – nipy Feb 12 '20 at 20:27
Replacing the original comma after "afford" with a semicolon or dash might be better, but some punctuation needs to go there, don't just remove it. – nnnnnn Feb 12 '20 at 20:58

Comma inside quotes

1 Answers1