Speech Marks for Talking

What are speech marks?

Speech marks are little marks that look like this: " ". They wrap around the exact words someone says out loud. 💬 People also call them inverted commas or quotation marks.

"Hello!" said Tom. 👦

The words Hello! are the exact words Tom spoke, so they go inside the marks.

The exact words go inside

Only the words that come out of someone's mouth sit inside the speech marks. The rest of the sentence stays outside.

Mum said, "Time for bed." 🛏️

Here, Mum said is outside, and Time for bed. is inside because Mum actually said it.

Capital letters and end marks

Two handy rules help your talking sentences look neat:

• Start the spoken words with a capital letter.
• Put the comma, question mark or exclamation mark inside the closing speech mark.

Sentence	Why
"It is sunny," said Anna.	comma before the closing mark ☀️
"Can we play?" asked Sam.	the ? stays inside ❓
"Run!" yelled Jo.	the ! stays inside ⚡

Read it out loud

When you read, the speech marks tell you, these are the words to say in the character's voice. 🎭 Try reading them like a little actor!

"Wow!" shouted Ben. 🎉

Play and practise

Play the matching game to spot who is talking. Then flip the flashcards to check where the marks and end punctuation go.

Keep going

Try these next:

• End marks: Capital Letters and Full Stops
• Strong feelings: Exclamation Marks and Strong Feelings

Now your characters can really talk! 💬 Brilliant! 🌟