Quotation marks in dialogue

Quotation marks are used to indicate the exact words spoken by a person.

The punctuation mark at the end of the spoken sentence goes inside the quotation marks.

The speaker tag (like 'said' or 'asked') comes after the quotation, and a comma is used before the closing quotation mark.

The first word inside the quotation marks should be capitalized if it starts a complete sentence.

"I love reading books," said Sarah.

If the spoken sentence is a question, the question mark goes inside the quotation marks.

You write the quote, followed by a comma, then the speaker tag, like this: "It's a beautiful day," said John.

If the dialogue is a statement, a period is used at the end of the spoken sentence inside the quotation marks.

"What time is the meeting?" asked Tom.

"Hello, how are you?" she asked.