Speech marks: single or double?

[Fizzytea]

Just arguing/chatting with DH, who is an academic. He says in British English we use single inverted commas for direct speech.

He says, 'we use single inverted commas!'

I say, "at school we were taught to use double!"

(DC10 says actually we should use a capital letter after the inverted comma/s also, but that's another discussion.)

I looked it up in my 1980s copy of Fowler's Modern English and it says to use single inverted commas. So why are we taught to use double at school?

Read the title and thought it was clearly double. Read the post and am doubting everything I know. Watching with interest. What are double for then?!

God I don’t know, but I really need to know.

I use double for direct speech and single for quotes but who knows!

Double are for Americans, apparently! Also for a quote within a quote, for emphasis.

She said, 'I heard my DH say, "double?!" in dismay.'

British English: single, with double for further quotes within quotes.
American English: the other way round.

British English: single, with double for further quotes within quotes.

This.

I use double for direct speech and single for quotes.

Perfectly put!

Whaaaat? When did this change, or did my school teach us incorrectly 40 years ago?

I was taught double for direct speech at school in the late 80s/90s.

But then I was taught two spaces after a full stop and apparently thats wrong as well so who knows.

This.

I'm coming to the end of a degree in English Lit and Creative Writing with the OU and one of the first things we were told in writing, both creative and academic, was to use single inverted commas here.

I was intrigued (same situation where we had been told to use double ones at school) and checked loads of my books and sure enough they were single in the British books and double in the American ones.

Then you get authors like Roddy Doyle and Irvine Welsh who use an em dash before speech instead of any inverted commas.

I'm a primary teacher and use double for punctuating speech and single for a quotation.

I really don't think it matters, as long as you are consistent in the one you use.

I prefer to use single these days, but definitely remember being taught at school to use double. I suspect the use of single is more modern.

Same.

Mumsnet quotes with double.

I always use double to quote speech.

@Hellocatshome

i heard something about that, but chose to ignore that but of stupidity! 2 spaces is perfect.

Speech marks 69 &96(or " ")

Quote Marks ' '

I'm sticking with it!!

I was taught double too - I’m in my 40s.

Personally it depends on who I'm quoting to and how obvious I want it to be. Otherwise I've no freaking clue.

If you’re editing text for a book publication, British English is single quotes (double within single if needed). And anyone using a mixture is a PITA.

But for most other purposes- if you’re not editing for publication- then no one gives a fuck as long as you pick a consistent style.

It sounds like I've been using speech marks incorrectly my entire adult life.

I used double for direct speech "What a lovely day it is!" and single to denote I was using an ambiguous noun (e.g. the title of a book or TV show) - e.g. I was watching 'The Office US'. For the ambiguous noun, I'd also use italics, e.g. 'The Office US'.

Looks like I was wrong, wrong, wrong.

Same!

This is how I understand (understood now I suppose) to use them.

Australian and went to school in the 70s, and I think it was double for speech ir direct quotes and single for a quote within that. Or possibly I’ve got that arse about face and just picked up the habit from the predominance of US style on the internet!

I would have used this rule of thumb. Single for quotes and to signify irony. Double for direct conversation.

Same. How odd that so many of us were taught the same thing. I’m not changing now!