I get a lot of questions about punctuating dialogue, and it’s something I’ve noticed writers struggling with lately. Punctuating dialogue can be tricky–when do you use a comma versus a period, and when do you capitalize things? What about question marks?
In this post, I’ve highlighted the main questions I receive about punctuation and dialogue, and there’s even a bonus at the end about character thoughts and internal dialogue.
What is a dialogue tag?
Before we jump into the nitty-gritty of punctuating dialogue, it’s important to know what a dialogue tag is.
Put simply, a dialogue tag is something that attributes the dialogue to the speaker. This is usually thought some kind of “said” verb, like “she said” or “he exclaimed.” The dialogue tag is italicized in the example below.
Example: “I want some coffee,” she said.
You can also use action to attribute dialogue to a specific character. This is done by following your dialogue with an action sentence. The action sentence is italicized in the example below.
Example: “I want some coffee.” She walked towards Starbucks.
See? Easy!
Now, let’s get into punctuating dialogue.
Dialogue with no dialogue tag
Let’s start with the very basics: dialogue with no dialogue tag.
Example: “I want some coffee.”
This sentence is straight-forward. It’s a simple sentence punctuated by a period. Notice the period goes inside the ending quotation mark.
Dialogue with a dialogue tag
When you have dialogue with a tag after the dialogue, a comma follows the dialogue and comes before the quotation marks. Add a period at the very end of the sentence.
Example: “I want coffee,” she said.
The dialogue tag ‘she said’ is not capitalized because it’s part of the same sentence as the dialogue.
You can also put the dialogue tag before the dialogue. When you do this, a comma goes after the ‘said’ verb and before the quotation marks. The period goes at the end of the dialogue, inside the quotation marks.
Example: She said, “I want coffee.”
If you’re wondering how to use a question mark as your end punctuation with dialogue, keep reading. I cover that in another section.
Dialogue with tags and action
Sometimes, a dialogue tag by itself is boring and you want to spice up the sentence by adding action. In this case, the comma comes after the dialogue inside of the quotation marks. Then, you add your dialogue tag, which is punctuated with a comma to introduce the action. The action follows the comma, and you punctuate the end of the sentence with a period.
Example: “I want coffee,” she said, walking towards the Starbucks.
You can also put the action and dialogue tag before the dialogue. In this case, Start with the action, which is followed by a comma and the dialogue tag. As always, the dialogue tag is followed by a comma outside of the beginning quotation mark. Punctuate your dialogue with a period inside of the ending quotation mark.
Example: Walking towards the Starbucks, she said, “I want coffee.”
Dialogue interrupted by a tag
Your dialogue tags don’t have to come just before or after the whole of your dialogue. You can interrupt a character’s dialogue with a tag.
Example: “I want coffee,” she said, “really bad.”
This may not be the most elegant sentence, but you get the idea. When you’re interrupting dialogue with a tag, include a comma inside the quotation marks at the end of the first bit, add your dialogue tag, and then follow your dialogue tag with another comma to continue the speech.
Alternatively, you may split your dialogue into two sentences. In that case, you should end your dialogue tag with a period.
Example: “I want coffee,” she said. “I really need an iced caramel macchiato.”
Notice that the second sentence begins with a capital letter when you end your dialogue tag with a period.
Questions in dialogue
Characters don’t just use commas and periods in their speech. Sometimes they ask questions, and there are special punctuation and capitalization rules for question marks in dialogue.
When you don’t use a dialogue tag, it’s very straight forward. Just use a question mark inside of your quotation marks.
Example: “Do you want to get coffee?”
Questions with dialogue tags aren’t hard, either. Just remember: you don’t use a comma, and the tag is not capitalized because it’s technically part of the same sentence.
Example: “Do you want to get coffee?” she asked.
The same construction applies to exclamation points.
Example: “Let’s get coffee!”
Example: “Let’s get coffee!” she exclaimed as she ran toward the Starbucks.
Mixing dialogue and action
As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, your dialogue tag doesn’t necessarily have to be a “she said” tag. You can use action to attribute dialogue to a character, and this is a great way to mix things up and keep your prose interesting.
Example: “Let’s get coffee.” Suzy motioned for her friend to follow her towards the Starbucks.
In the above example, the dialogue stands alone and is punctuated by a period inside of the quotation marks. Then, I’ve added an action sentence after this. Suzy is the one saying the dialogue, and by adding her action after the dialogue, it’s obvious who is speaking. When you do this, it’s important to use a period, question mark, or exclamation mark to end your dialogue.
BONUS: Formatting and punctuating internal thoughts/dialogue
You can treat a character’s internal thoughts/monologue like you would dialogue in terms of punctuation.
Example: I can’t believe she asked me to go to Starbucks, he thought.
Notice the comma goes after the thought and before the tag. You’ll also notice I did not include quotation marks.
Character thoughts are generally italicized. So, instead of quotation marks, you would italicize the thought.
Example: I can’t believe she asked me to go to Starbucks, he thought.
Additionally, you can interrupt thoughts with action. You can also separate the thoughts into multiple sentences. Again, you will punctuate this the same way as you punctuate dialogue.
Example: I can’t believe she asked me to go to Starbucks. Joseph looked up at the sun and squinted. I guess it is a good day for iced coffee.
Need more help?
If you need help smoothing out the punctuation in your novel, contact me to learn how I can help you polish your manuscript.
I love all the Starbucks references! And, even though I’m an experienced writer, I still get tripped up over question marks and exclamations.
Well, you know, coffee does rule the world! 😉 In all seriousness, punctuation is tricky, even varying by style guides and books. Isn’t language fun?
This has seriously been a confusing portion of writing. I avoided adding dialogue (or action with) for so long. It was like avoiding drawing hands. If you can’t see them, you can’t mess up, right?
Obviously that wasn’t the best decision.
Thanks for such a great post!
Except that if you don’t include them, you cause lots of confusion. LOL. I’m glad you found it helpful, Kayla! 🙂 Onward, to great dialogue tags!
Thank you for this.
I’m so glad you found it helpful!
Easy to read and understand! An iced caramel macchiato?
So glad to hear it, Jeff!
And an iced caramel macchiato is a fancy coffee drink 🙂 Super delicious! You should try one if you like coffee and caramel!
Thanks for this!
My question regards capitalization in dialogue.
Do you capitalize the beginning of the dialogue as if it is the start of a new sentence, even when your dialogue tag is at the beginning? In your example your speaker is starting with the word ‘I’ – which is capitalized regardless.
However, in the following example would you also capitalize the first word?
Ex. Alex turned to her and said, “your orchid really needs to be repotted.”
OR Alex turned to her and said, “Your orchid really needs to be repotted.”
Thanks for the help, I was working through a grammar course on Linked-In Learning and it never did address this situation. Your tutorial here was more thorough and I appreciate it greatly!
Great question! I should update that example to start with something other than ‘I.’ To answer your question, yes, you would want to capitalize it. To use your example, that would be: Alex turned to her and said, “Your orchid really needs to be repotted.” Hop that helps!
It certainly does. Thank you! I now need to go back through two novels and check for instances where I have made this mistake. *groan*
Here looking for capitalization rules as well and the “I” wasn’t helping, thanks for the clarification. Using “thought” in the example for thought tags threw me for a minute as well. It is always good to keep examples free of the, what do you call it, matter at hand, thing under consideration.
Now if I can just force myself to follow the rules, because I like not capitalizing the quotes after he said, she said, etc. I am a bit rebellious that way. If only there were a way to turn off the flags in grammarly, I might not let it beat me into submission. 🙂
What about quoting something someone else said in your internal thought? I wondered in my head, ‘Did my mom really say, Take out the trash’? Is “Take out the trash” in italics or is the outside in italics, and her quote in single or regular quotes?
That’s tricky! I would say keep it italics with regular quotes. But I would also ask why the character seems to be repeating the mom’s external dialogue. A simpler way to approach that might be, Did Mom really just tell me to take out the trash? This eliminates potentially tricky punctuation… at least depending on context. Maybe your character needs to repeat that exact phrasing!