Is a comma usually precedes the opening quotation marks in a line of dialogue, setting off the speakers words from the rest of the sentence

Answer 1

When the speaker tag comes first, put a comma after the speaker tag. The period at the end of the sentence goes inside the quotation marks.

The gang remarked, “Lola’s candidate is a sure bet.”

Lola replied, “He’s not my candidate.”

When the speaker tag comes last, put a comma inside the quotation marks and a period at the end of the sentence.

“Lola’s candidate isn’t a sure bet now,” the gang continued.

“I support a different candidate,” screamed Lola.

Now you know the first two (of far too many) quotation rules. Keep in mind that it doesn’t matter where you put the speaker tag as long as you punctuate the sentence correctly.

Sometimes a speaker tag lands in the middle of a sentence.

“I think I’ll sue,” Betsy explained, “for emotional distress.”

“You can’t imagine,” she added, “what I felt.”

In each of these sample sentences, the speaker tag interrupts the quotation.