How to use quotation marks in Spanish

Puncutation with Spanish quotation marks

The main difference between quotation marks in Spanish and English is punctuation placement.

In English, punctuation marks such as commas and full stops are placed inside the quotation marks; in Spanish, these punctuation marks come outside of the quotation marks.

English:

“The roadworks will be finished in August,” the minister assured.

Spanish:

«Las obras terminarán en agosto», aseguró la ministra.

Aside from this key difference, Spanish quotation marks are employed in the same way as English ones:

Quotes and direct speech

Of course, the main purpose of angular quotation marks is to indicate a quote or a piece of direct speech.

Example:

Pepa: «Esta noche habrá luna llena». Pepa said, “There’s a full moon tonight.”

«En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, no ha mucho tiempo...». (Don Quijote, Miguel de Cervantes) “Somewhere in la Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago …”

Titles

Spanish quotation marks are also used to indicate subtitles of a publication, such as chapters. The main title of a book, film, newspaper, etc. is written in italics.

Example:

Mi capítulo favorito de Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal es el tercero: «Las cartas de nadie». My favourite chapter of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” is the third one, “The Letters from No One”.

Nicknames

Nicknames and aliases that are inserted between a person’s first and surname are written in quotation marks.

Example:

Ernesto «Che» Guevara. Ernesto “Che” Guevara