Hey, everyone, welcome to another English grammar lesson. Today we're going to be continuing
our study of quotation marks in dialogue.
Okay, so last time we looked at how to write
lines of dialogue with the speaker tag at the beginning of the sentence. Today, we're
going to be looking at how to write lines of dialogue with the speaker tag at the end.
So let's throw up a basic sentence—without any quotation marks and stuff—and see what
we’re looking at: I'll be home soon he said. All right, so you should remember from last
time that the first thing that we always need to do is find the speaker tag—find the words
that tell who is actually talking. And in this sentence, that would be "he said." And,
again, if you remember what we did last time, you remember that the next thing we've got
to do is read the rest of the sentence and see if that's something that would make sense
for someone to actually say. And it is. "I'll be home soon" is a fine, functional sentence
in the English language. So, what do we do? Well, we put quotation marks around it. This
shows the reader that these words are being said out loud. So now, we've got a sentence
that looks like this: [quotation marks] I'll be home soon [quotation marks] he said. Now,
here's the test: Do you remember what we do next? Answer is… comma. We've got to put
in the comma. And that comma is supposed to separate the stuff that's being said from
the actual speaker tag. And we want to put this comma inside the quotation marks. So
now, we have this… Now, if you remember, in our last video we talked about capitalization—like,
capitalizing the first word of someone's sentence. Well, if we look here, that's already been
done. And we do not—I repeat: we do not—have to capitalize the speaker tag unless it’s
at the very beginning of a sentence or if it's a proper noun, like “I” said or “Tom”
said or something like that. Now, there is one rule we have to remember when it comes
to speaker tags that come after a quote, and that is paying attention to what kind of quote
we have. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, let’s take a look at this: Can you come
over I asked. So, of course, we've got to do our usual thing here: We've got to find
the speaker tag, which is “I asked.” And we've got to read the rest of it; you know,
we’ve got to see if it makes sense. And it does, so we get those quotation marks up.
And, of course, we've also got to remember our comma. But wait… What kind of sentence
is this: "Can you come over?" What kind of sentence is that? That, my friends, is a question.
So, in this situation, instead of putting a comma inside the quotation marks, we want
to put a question mark to show the reader that this is a question. The same thing is
true for when people are shouting. Put that down she yelled. We do our thing here. Our
speaker tag is she yelled. The rest of the sentence makes sense; we put up our quotation
marks… But I don't actually want a comma here. Why? Well, because this is somebody
shouting, and if that's the case, I should be using an exclamation point. So, let's try
a few examples here… You're a great friend she told me. Step one: find that speaker tag.
Should be… "she told me." Step two: read the rest of the sentence out loud: "You're
a great friend." Does that make sense to say? Yes. Yes, it does. Cool, so get those quotation
marks up. And finally, what kind of sentence is this? Is it a question? No. Is somebody
yelling? Eh, I don’t think so. So, we've just got to put a comma here—inside the
quotation marks. Next one: Are you sure you want to do that I asked him. First step: find
the speaker tag: "I asked him." Step two, read the rest; does it make sense? Yep, so
we get the quotation marks up. And finally, what kind of sentence is this? Well, this
sentence is a question, so we’ve got to get a question mark in there. Couple more…
I'm not sure that's what he said. Speaker tag? Boom: "he said." Now, read the rest of
it. Ooh… hmm… What’ve we got here? "I'm not sure that's what..." Hmm... yeah, that
doesn't make any sense. So, just like in the last video, where we talked about how not
every speaker tag is going to mean someone's actually talking, we've got the same situation
here. No actual dialogue is in this sentence—so no quotation marks. Last one: I love you she
screamed. Okay, first, find your speaker tag: “she screamed.” Now, read the rest. It
makes sense. So, quotation marks. And what kind of sentence is this? Well, somebody’s
screaming, so we should probably use an exclamation point. Cool! Well, whether you came here for
a refresher or are just now learning this stuff for the first time, I hope this video
helped. Be sure to check out the free practice problems down in the description, and—uh—we’ll
see you next time. Thanks.