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When we write stories, we can show speech in different ways.

 

Comics often use speech bubbles to show what people are saying.

 

girl with speech bubble

 

We can also use inverted commas, which some people call speech marks, to show the same information.

 

Inverted commas look like this:

 

 

 

They are sometimes called 'sixty sixes' and 'ninety nines', and they go around the words that are actually spoken.

 

"It's my birthday today," said Amelia.

 

Once we open the inverted commas (speech marks), we must use a capital letter to start what the person is saying.

 

Once the person has finished speaking, we must use a a piece of punctuation before we close the inverted commas.

 

We can use a comma ,

an exclamation mark !

or a question mark ?

 

Then we can close the inverted commas.

 

Look carefully at what Amelia says. The closing inverted commas go after the comma, not before it - can you see that?

 

There's lots to remember, so feel free to look back at this page again if you need to. Just click on the red help button on the screen when you're doing the questions.

 

boy writing

10 questions