EXPLANATION Sometimes we have situations where two sets of inverted commas need to be used at the same time, with one set inside the other. So that the reader can distinguish the two sets, we use single inverted commas for one and double inverted commas for the other.
It does not matter whether we make the outer set double and the inner set single or the outer set single and the inner set double; what is important is that we should adopt one style for quotations and use it consistently and use the other for quotations within quotations.
British style tends to favour using single quotation marks for quotations and double quotation marks for any quote nested within that quotation: ' "quote" ' . American style favours using double quotation marks for quotations and single quotation marks for nested quotes: " 'quote' ". While Australia tends to follow British style, Australian newspapers favour using double quotation marks. Confused? The main thing, as with any style, is to adopt a style and be consistent. (Note that if your school or university has a style manual, you should be guided by that.)
An associated issue is where to put other punctuation marks such as full stops, question marks and exclamation marks. Often a quotation nested in another quotation will have its own punctuation. For example, if it is a complete sentence, then theoretically it would have its own full stop and the sentence it is nested in would have its own full stop, question mark or exclamation mark, as in:
The guest speaker concluded: 'Remember what Jonathan Swift said: "May you live all the days of your life."'.
Because that looks untidy, over-punctuated, the convention has developed of using just one mark.
- The guest speaker concluded: 'Remember what Jonathan Swift said: "May you live all the days of your life"'. (British style – use the outside full stop.)
- The guest speaker concluded: "Remember what Jonathan Swift said: 'May you live all the days of your life.'" (American style – use the inside full stop.)
Note, however, that a question mark or exclamation mark will always take precedence over a full stop, as in:
'Who can tell me what Jonathan Swift meant when he said, "May you live all the days of your life"?' asked the teacher. (Both British and American style place the question mark in the same place because the question mark does not belong to the embedded quotation here. It belongs to the sentence that begins with "Who".)
Compare that with this sentence, where the exclamation mark is part of the nested quotation:
According to the coach: 'Brad has been playing for ten years for the club. This was the first grand final he's ever played in. Every time I walk past him, he exclaims, "We just won the grand final!"' (The exclamation mark refers just to Brad's exclamation.)