Direct speech is someone else's speech, accurately reproduced and conveyed on behalf of the person who spoke it. Sentences with direct speech include two components: the speech itself and introducing words, which indicate who this speech was said (the words of the author).
To highlight direct speech in a sentence, punctuation marks are used: dashes or quotation marks. The placement of punctuation marks depends on the design of direct speech.
1.1. start a paragraph, then it should be preceded by a dash:
“Everything is forgiven for work,” Vedeneev says dryly. (Panova)
1.2. formatted as a line and separated by quotation marks:
“Maksim Maksimych, would you like some tea?” - I shouted at him through the window (Lermontov)
Note: Both rules are valid when constructing a dialogue:
- Svetlana, where is the piece of chocolate that I left on the table?
- The cat ate it.
- Why did you let her? (L.A. Barto)
“How, how?.. Could you turn it up?.. What is this song?..” - “I accidentally remembered this one... My father once sang. You can come up with something else...” - “We don’t need anything else, let’s do this!” (according to B. Chirkov)
2.1. before direct speech, then a colon is placed after the author’s words, direct speech begins with a capital letter and ends with the punctuation mark required by the nature of the statement:
Raising Alka in her arms and showing the sea, Natka quickly said: “Alka, look how fast the big ship is!” (A. Gaidar)
Once, when Gianni Rodari was visiting the Krasnodar children, one boy asked him:
- Why is it cold in winter and warm in summer?
2.2. after direct speech, at the end of which a suitable sign is placed (a question or exclamation mark, an ellipsis or a comma, but not a period), then there is a dash and the author’s words starting with a lowercase letter:
“You’re lying, you won’t catch me!” - Metelitsa said solemnly.
“Is it necessary to be an optimist?” - Tanya asked once. “Preferably, because an optimist is smarter than a pessimist,” Andrey answered cheerfully (K.A. Ketlinskaya)
Note: As can be seen from the last example, the peculiarity of placing a comma after direct speech is that it is placed not inside the statement, but after the closing quotation mark.
2.3. inside direct speech, breaking the latter into two parts. There are some peculiarities of writing punctuation marks here.
- if direct speech is a single sentence and must be continued after a break, then the author’s words on both sides are highlighted with a comma and a dash, after which the first word is written with a small letter:
“Is it really,” I thought, “my only purpose on earth is to destroy other people’s hopes?” (Lermontov)
- if the statement consists of several sentences, and the author’s words appear after one of them, then the exclamation and question marks, the ellipsis at the end of this sentence are preserved, the period is replaced by a comma. This is followed by a dash, the author’s words with a small letter, a dot, a dash, and direct speech continues with a capital letter:
“We have nothing to shoot here,” Popko’s voice answered on the phone. “I myself am surprised, why did he bounce?” (L.S. Sobolev);
“Frost! – Baklanov shouted after those leaving. “Still, don’t lose sight of each other.” (Fadeev)
- if the author’s words contain verbs that have the meaning of statements and relate to different parts of broken direct speech, then a colon and a dash are placed before its second part:
“Let’s go, it’s cold,” said Makarov and asked gloomily: “Why are you silent?” (Bitter).
2.4. before and after direct speech, which, in fact, breaks the author's speech. In this case, after the first part of the author's words there is a colon, an opening quotation mark, direct speech, a punctuation mark necessary for the meaning (except for a period), a closing quotation mark, a dash, and the second part of the author's words. If direct speech was supposed to end with a period, then a comma is placed after the closing quotation mark instead:
To my question: “Is the old caretaker alive?” - no one could give me a satisfactory answer (Pushkin);
Arriving at the dacha in a large group, my brother suddenly said: “Mishka, let’s go to billiards,” and they locked themselves in and played billiards for three hours. (Simonov).
In Russian, any “foreign” speech expressed verbatim and included in the author’s text is called direct. In conversation, she stands out with pauses and intonation. And in a letter it can be highlighted in two ways: in one line “in selection” or by writing each remark from a paragraph. Direct speech, to form it correctly, is a rather difficult topic for children. Therefore, when studying rules alone, it is not enough; there must be clear examples of writing such sentences.
How to highlight dialogue in writing
Direct speech “dialogue”, punctuation marks and the formatting of conversations in writing is a rather complex topic that needs to be properly understood. Firstly, remarks belonging to different persons are most often recorded from a paragraph. For example:
- Look into that nest over there: is there anything there?
- There is nothing. Not a single egg!
- Are there any shells near the nest?
- There are no shells!
- What's happened!? It's not like some kind of animal is in the habit of stealing eggs - we need to trace it!
Two persons, designed using paragraph marking, in which each new paragraph with a remark from one of the interlocutors must always begin with a dash and a capital letter. Replies may consist of one or more exclamation or interrogative types.
Secondly, direct speech, after which punctuation marks are placed in a special order, can be written in one line. To format the dialogue in this way “in a selection” without indicating who exactly they belong to, each of them must be enclosed in quotation marks and highlighted with a dash. For example:
“Well, what are you doing?” - “I’m afraid, what if the ladder falls?” - “The ladder won’t fall, but you might drop the basket with eggs!”
If one of the statements is followed by author's notes, the dash before the next phrase is omitted. And a comma and a dash are placed before the author’s words.
“She’s sleeping,” Tanya said. “Show me where he sleeps!”
Direct speech before and after the author's text
If, in writing a conversation between several people, the author’s preliminary words are included, then a colon is placed after them. Moreover, it is also mandatory in cases where there is no verb that determines the continuation of the conversation, but direct speech is clearly visible. For example:
Mother smiled:
- You are my smart girl!
You can also write this phrase in one line, only then you need to use quotes: For example:
The mother smiled: “My good girl!”
It is worth noting that unspoken thoughts or inner speech of the author are always highlighted in quotation marks, regardless of where in the sentence it is located. Echo sounds are also placed in quotation marks in writing. For example:
“Now I’d like some hot tea,” he thought.
I stand and think: “Why is this rain?”
"Hey, people?" - the echo repeated loudly.
Before writing words of direct speech, always put a colon after the author’s words and open quotation marks. The remark always begins with a capital letter, an exclamation point is placed before the closing quotation marks, or a period is placed only after the quotation marks.
Special cases of formatting direct speech
There are some cases where after the words of the author there is direct speech, the punctuation marks in which are slightly different from those described above. Namely, if in the absence of a verb denoting the subsequent remark, it is impossible to put the words “and said”, “and thought”, “and exclaimed”, “and asked” and the like, in such cases a colon is not placed after the author’s notes. For example:
Nobody wanted to leave.
- Tell us another story!
My words confused everyone.
- So you don't trust us?
How to highlight a quote in an email
Quotations given in the text are distinguished using approximately the same rules. If it is not given in full, then an ellipsis is placed where the words are missing. As a rule, quotations are always separated by commas, even if they are similar to Before a quotation with the first words omitted, they begin to be written with an ellipsis and, if it is located in the middle of a sentence, then with a lowercase one. Here, as in the case of direct speech, colons and dashes are used, which are placed according to already known rules regarding the location of the quotation.
Author's notes inside direct speech
In the case where the author’s words need to be inserted into direct speech in the text, the statements are enclosed in quotation marks along with the author’s notes. For example:
“I’ll go to my grandmother,” the kid said, “and that’s all!”
There are cases when quotation marks are not used at all, commas are used instead:
- If there is no clear identification of the person to whom the remark belongs, or when a well-known proverb is used in the text.
- When it is difficult to determine whether we are talking directly or indirectly.
- If the statement includes the word “says”. For example: He says, I’ll show you again!
- If the statement contains an indication of the source. Most often this applies to periodicals. For example: The speech from the stage, the correspondent notes, blew up the hall with applause.
If, when breaking statements, direct speech should not have ended with any sign, or a comma, dash, colon or semicolon was provided, then a comma and a dash are placed before the author’s words, and a period and a dash are placed at the end. Then the rest of the replica is written in capital letters. For example:
“I’ll be gone for a few minutes,” said Helen. “I’ll be there soon.”
In cases where in the first part of direct speech there should have been a question or exclamation mark before the break, it is placed before the dash and the author's words, after which they put a period and then direct speech continues after the dash. The ellipsis with colon is also preserved.
Instead of a conclusion
Direct speech, which is not so difficult to learn, is found very often in literary works. Therefore, books can be a good visual aid for studying this topic. After all, visual perception, together with knowledge of the rules, can well consolidate knowledge on the topic “Direct Speech” in memory.
Punctuation marks, sentence patterns with the location of direct speech and quotations in the text are studied at school for many years, which is understandable, because this section of the Russian language is quite voluminous and has many subtleties. However, the basic rules that are most often used in writing are not that difficult to remember.
Formatting direct speech in text allows you to reproduce all the features of live oral speech.
The concept of direct speech and the words of the author
Direct speech is a reproduced utterance of someone else, in which its lexical, syntactic and intonation features are preserved. Direct speech is accompanied by the author’s words, from which it becomes known who the thought belongs to, under what circumstances and how it will be expressed.
The design of direct speech allows you to reproduce all the features of live oral speech: expression, appeals, exclamations, and the like. Direct speech stores not only the content of the statement, but also its lexical, grammatical and stylistic features:
"Vasya! Come here!" - Father shouted from the yard.
Punctuation marks and direct speech
Placing direct speech in quotation marks is a mandatory rule, and quotation marks should include question and exclamation marks, as well as the ellipsis that ends the sentence. The period and comma must be placed outside the quotation marks. However, if the quotation marks already contain a question or exclamation mark, or an ellipsis, then neither a period nor a comma is placed behind the quotation marks. Direct speech can consist of one or more sentences, as well as its parts.
If direct speech is formed in the text, the author’s words may appear before, inside or after it.
- Grandma asks: “What, kids? Do you want some pies?”
- “What, kids?” asks grandma. “Do you want some pies?”
- "What, kids? Do you want some pies?" - asks the grandmother.
You can learn the use of punctuation marks in constructions when formatting direct speech (P, p) with the words of the author (A, a) using the following schemes:
It should be noted that the author’s words are highlighted with a comma and a dash on both sides when they are inside the direct speech expressed by a narrative sentence. If the author’s words end with an indication (added, said, objected, answered) that direct speech continues, the design of the second part should begin with a capital letter; In this case, after the words of the author, you need to put a colon and a dash.
Dialogue
A type of direct speech is dialogue. Dialogue is a conversation between two or more people. The individual messages and questions that make up the dialogue are called replicas. During replicas, the author's words are often absent. In dramatic works, the author's words are called stage directions.
Punctuation marks in dialogues
The dialogue begins with a paragraph and a dash before the line:
- Mother! Does the sun have children?
- Eat.
-Where are they?
- Where? And in the sky... those stars that shine at night are the children of the sun...
In dramatic works, dialogue is written after the name of the character and the period:
Boy: My ears are frozen...
Girl. Put on your hat!
In all cases, the design of direct speech begins with a capital letter.
Transmission of direct speech to indirect
In life and in literature, we often have to replace direct speech with indirect speech, that is, convey it in our own words. A sentence with direct speech then becomes complex, in which the main sentence forms the words of the author, and the subordinate sentence forms direct speech; To connect the main and contract parts, the conjunctions “so that” or “a” are used, as well as pronouns and adverbs:
- "Will you go by boat to Kanev?" — the teacher asked the high school students.
- The teacher asked whether the high school students would go on a boat to Kanev.
The questions expressed by the contract proposal are called indirect; there is no sign at the end of such a sentence.
Someone else's statement, conveyed on behalf of the narrator along with the words of the author, is called indirect speech. When someone else’s statement is conveyed from oneself, that is, indirect speech, then the author’s words are made the main sentence, and direct speech is made subordinate.
Rules for formatting quotations
A quotation is a verbatim excerpt from some work or text to prove or illustrate a particular opinion. The quotation must be placed in quotation marks.
- Nothing in the quote can be changed, not even punctuation. When a quotation is not given in full, spaces in it should be indicated by three dots.
There are two types of citation: in the form of direct speech and in the form of indirect speech. - If the quotation is given in the form of direct speech, then the design of punctuation marks for it should be done in the same way as the design of direct speech in writing.
- If a quotation is given as an integral part of an author’s sentence, then the same requirements apply to it as to indirect speech.
- If a quotation is presented in the form of a verse, then it is not placed in quotation marks.
Direct speech is a way of conveying someone else's statement, accompanied by the author's words. In relation to the author’s words, direct speech is an independent sentence, which is intonationally and meaningfully connected with the author’s context, and forms one whole with it.
Formatting direct speech 1. Direct speech should be highlighted in quotation marks. 2. If the author’s words precede direct speech, then a colon must be placed after them. Start writing direct speech with a capital letter. Tanya, gently hugging her mother’s shoulders, tried to calm her down: “Don’t worry, Mom.” 3. If direct speech precedes the words of the author, then a comma and a dash should be placed after it. If direct speech contains an exclamation or a question, then a question mark or a dash should be placed after it. In all cases, the author’s words should begin with a small letter. Sentences with direct speech: “I won’t give you to anyone,” Anton whispered excitedly. "Who's there?" - Pashka asked in fear. "Let's run quickly!" - Seryozha shouted. Formatting direct speech in writing, when the author’s words are in the middle of direct speech, provides for the following cases:
1. If at the place where direct speech is broken there should not be any or there should be a colon, dash, comma or semicolon, then the author’s words should be highlighted on both sides with commas and a dash. “Do you know,” he began, “about Williams Hobbas and his interesting fate?”
“Do you remember,” Masha began the conversation sadly, “how in childhood you and your dad went to the forest?” Formatting direct speech in writing 2. If you are supposed to put a dot at the place where direct speech breaks, then after direct speech you need to put a comma and a dash, and after the author’s words - a dot and a dash. In this case, the second part should be written with a capital letter. The format of direct speech in this case looks like this: “It all ended so sadly,” Masha finished in tears. “But I didn’t even imagine this.” 3. If at the place where direct speech breaks, an exclamation mark is supposed to be placed, then this sign and a dash should be placed before the author’s words, and a dot and a dash after the author’s words. The second part should be written with a capital letter. “Why at seven?” Vanya asked. “They change at eight.” “Oh, it’s you, Nadka!” said Danya. “Look at this. How are you? Are you good?” 5. Formulation of direct speech when transmitting dialogue. In this case, usually each replica must begin on a new line. Before the remark you need to put a dash and do not use quotation marks. Example of dialogue design:
Sentences with direct speech - You don’t eat anything and remain silent, master. - I'm afraid of hostile encounters. - How far is it still from Yakupov? - Four leagues. - Ha! Just about an hour's drive! - The road is beautiful, just press on the pedals, huh? - I'll press it! - Ooh! Go!
Formatting direct speech in dialogue in a different form: remarks can be written in a row, each of them placed in quotation marks and separated from the others by dashes. For example, “Daisy! Daisy! - “Well, yes, Daisy; what else?" - “You are getting married!” - “Oh my God, I know! Leave quickly!” - “But you shouldn’t. They shouldn’t...” - “I know. But what can I do now? - “Are you unhappy?” - “Don’t torture me! I ask you to! Go away! The rules for formatting direct speech in writing are simple and accessible. Write correctly!
To highlight direct speech, dashes or quotation marks are used, namely:
If direct speech is in a line, without a paragraph, then quotation marks are placed before the beginning and at the end, for example:
The little girl ran and shouted: “Have you seen your mother?”
Note. Quotations inserted in the middle of a sentence are also marked with quotation marks, but they are not preceded by a colon, for example:
Gogol rightly said that “in Pushkin, as if in the lexicon, all the wealth, flexibility and strength of our language was contained.”
Belinsky
If direct speech begins with a paragraph, then a dash is placed before the beginning, for example:
The little girl ran and shouted:
-Have you seen your mother?M. Gorky
A sentence that stands in direct speech and indicates to whom it belongs (“the words of the author”) can:
A) precede direct speech; in this case, a colon is placed after it, and after direct speech - a punctuation mark in accordance with the nature of direct speech, for example:
b) follow direct speech; in this case, after direct speech there is a question mark, or an exclamation mark, or an ellipsis, or a comma (the latter instead of a period), and after this sign a dash, for example:He turned away and, walking away, muttered: “Still, this is completely against the rules.”
Lermontov
Finally I told her: “Do you want to go for a walk on the rampart?”
Lermontov
She looked and screamed: “This is Kazbich!”
Lermontov
c) break direct speech into two parts; in this case put:“What about Kazbich?” — I asked the staff captain impatiently.
Lermontov
- What about Kazbich? — I asked the staff captain impatiently.
“How boring it is!” - I exclaimed involuntarily.
Lermontov
- How boring it is! - I exclaimed involuntarily.
“She died...” Aksinya echoed.
“She died...” Aksinya echoed.
“There’s the district chieftain,” whispered Panteley Prokofievich, pushing Grigory from behind.
“There’s the district chieftain,” whispered Panteley Prokofievich, pushing Grigory from behind.
-
after the author’s words - a period if the first part of direct speech is a complete sentence, and a comma if it is unfinished, followed by a dash; if direct speech is highlighted with quotation marks, then they are placed only before the beginning of direct speech and at the very end of it, for example:
- Would you like to add some rum? - I said to my interlocutor. - I have a white one from Tiflis; it's cold now.
Lermontov
- Well, that's enough, that's enough! - said Pechorin, hugging him friendly. - Am I not the same?
Lermontov
“Listen to me,” said Nadya, “someday to the end.”
“My name is Foma,” he answered, “and my nickname is Biryuk.”
Turgenev
“It’s going to rain,” Kalinich objected, “the ducks are splashing around, and the grass smells painfully.”
Turgenev
“Let’s go, it’s cold,” Makarov said and asked gloomily: “Why are you silent?”
M. Gorky
Note 2. The rules set out in this paragraph also apply to sentences containing quotes with indications of who they belong to.
Note 3. Internal monologue (“mental speech”), which takes the form of direct speech, is also enclosed in quotation marks.
If several replicas appear on a line without indicating who they belong to, then each of them is highlighted with quotation marks and, in addition, separated from the adjacent one by a dash, for example:
“Tell me, beauty,” I asked, “what were you doing on the roof today?” - “And I looked where the wind was blowing.” - “Why do you need it?” - “Where the wind comes from, happiness comes from there.” - “Why did you invite happiness with a song?” - “Where he sings, he is happy.”
Lermontov
Rules of Russian spelling and punctuation 1956
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