Quotation Marks are, like everything else, highly
sensitive to
language and
context. {U+201A
‚ SINGLE LOW-9 QUOTATION MARK ‚} and {U+201E
„ DOUBLE LOW-9 QUOTATION MARK „}
unambiguously
begin a quotation. All others can either
open or
close a quote, depending on context.
The following language breakdown is, of necessity, over-generalized.
In European typography, it is common to use guillemets (single or double angle brackets) for books and curly quotes for office automation. Single guillemets are sometimes used for quotes within quotes.
Dutch, English, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Turkish, use right and left quotation marks, alternating double and single for nested quotes.
Czech, German and Slovak use the low-9 style for opening a quote, and left quotes for closing. Guillemets point to the quoted text, which is the opposite of the French usage.
Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish use the same right quote for both opening and closing. When guillemets are used, they both point right.
Hungarian and Polish open with an low double quote and end with a single or double right quote.
French, Greek, Russian and Slovenian use guillemets, with Slovenian pointing in and French pointing out.
East Asian Languages tend to use corner brackets. The actual glyph is rotated for vertical text.
So, for example :
- “English”
- „German”
- ”Swedish”
- «French»
- »Slovenian«
- »Swedish Books»
As of version
4.0, the
Unicode standard has
29 semantically distinct varients of the quotation mark.
They are enumerated below, separated by
code block
All the characters in this code block were added in Unicode 1.1
Number of characters in each General Category :
Punctuation, Open Ps : 8
Punctuation, Close Pe : 7
Punctuation, Initial quote Pi : 6
Punctuation, Final quote Pf : 4
Punctuation, Other Po : 4
All the characters in this code block are in bidirectional category Other Neutral ON
The columns below should be interpreted as :
- The Unicode code for the character
- The character in question
- The Unicode name for the character
- The Unicode General Category for the character
If the characters below show up poorly, or not at all, see Unicode Support for possible solutions.
Basic Latin
ASCII
- U+0022 " quotation mark Po
- html "
- sgml "
- * neutral (vertical), used as opening or closing quotation mark
- * preferred characters in English for paired quotation marks are 201C & 201D
- ref U+02BA ʺ modifier letter double prime (Spacing Modifier Letters)
- ref U+030B ̋ combining double acute accent (Combining Diacritical Marks)
- ref U+030E ̎ combining double vertical line above (Combining Diacritical Marks)
- ref U+2033 ″ double prime (General Punctuation)
- ref U+3003 〃 ditto mark (CJK Symbols and Punctuation)
- U+0027 ' apostrophe Po
- sgml '
- aka APOSTROPHE-QUOTE
- aka APL quote
- * neutral (vertical) glyph having mixed usage
- * preferred character for apostrophe is 2019
- * preferred characters in English for paired quotation marks are 2018 & 2019
- ref U+02B9 ʹ modifier letter prime (Spacing Modifier Letters)
- ref U+02BC ʼ modifier letter apostrophe (Spacing Modifier Letters)
- ref U+02C8 ˈ modifier letter vertical line (Spacing Modifier Letters)
- ref U+0301 ́ combining acute accent (Combining Diacritical Marks)
- ref U+2032 ′ prime (General Punctuation)
Latin-1 Supplement
ISO 8859-1 (aka Latin-1)
- U+00AB « left pointing double angle quotation mark Pi
- html «
- sgml «
- aka LEFT POINTING GUILLEMET
- aka chevrons (in typography)
- * usually opening, sometimes closing
- ref U+226A ≪ much less than (Mathematical Operators)
- ref U+300A 《 left double angle bracket (CJK Symbols and Punctuation)
- U+00BB » right pointing double angle quotation mark Pf
- html »
- sgml »
- aka RIGHT POINTING GUILLEMET
- * usually closing, sometimes opening
- ref U+226B ≫ much greater than (Mathematical Operators)
- ref U+300B 》 right double angle bracket (CJK Symbols and Punctuation)
General Punctuation
General punctuation
- U+2018 ‘ left single quotation mark Pi
- html ‘
- sgml ‘ ‘ ’
- aka SINGLE TURNED COMMA QUOTATION MARK
- * this is the preferred glyph (as opposed to 201B)
- ref U+0027 ' apostrophe (Basic Latin)
- ref U+02BB ʻ modifier letter turned comma (Spacing Modifier Letters)
- ref U+275B ❛ heavy single turned comma quotation mark ornament (Dingbats)
- U+2019 ’ right single quotation mark Pf
- html ’
- sgml ’ ’
- aka SINGLE COMMA QUOTATION MARK
- * this is the preferred character to use for apostrophe
- ref U+0027 ' apostrophe (Basic Latin)
- ref U+02BC ʼ modifier letter apostrophe (Spacing Modifier Letters)
- ref U+275C ❜ heavy single comma quotation mark ornament (Dingbats)
- U+201A ‚ single low 9 quotation mark Ps
- html ‚
- sgml ‚ ‚
- aka LOW SINGLE COMMA QUOTATION MARK
- * used as opening single quotation mark in some languages
- U+201B ‛ single high reversed 9 quotation mark Pi
- sgml ”
- aka SINGLE REVERSED COMMA QUOTATION MARK
- * glyph variant of 2018
- ref U+02BD ʽ modifier letter reversed comma (Spacing Modifier Letters)
- U+201C “ left double quotation mark Pi
- html “
- sgml “ “ ”
- aka DOUBLE TURNED COMMA QUOTATION MARK
- * this is the preferred glyph (as opposed to 201F)
- ref U+0022 " quotation mark (Basic Latin)
- ref U+275D ❝ heavy double turned comma quotation mark ornament (Dingbats)
- ref U+301D 〝 reversed double prime quotation mark (CJK Symbols and Punctuation)
- U+201D ” right double quotation mark Pf
- html ”
- sgml ” ”
- aka DOUBLE COMMA QUOTATION MARK
- ref U+0022 " quotation mark (Basic Latin)
- ref U+2033 ″ double prime (General Punctuation)
- ref U+275E ❞ heavy double comma quotation mark ornament (Dingbats)
- ref U+301E 〞 double prime quotation mark (CJK Symbols and Punctuation)
- U+201E „ double low 9 quotation mark Ps
- html „
- sgml „ „
- aka LOW DOUBLE COMMA QUOTATION MARK
- * used as opening double quotation mark in some languages
- ref U+301F 〟 low double prime quotation mark (CJK Symbols and Punctuation)
- U+201F ‟ double high reversed 9 quotation mark Pi
- sgml ’
- aka DOUBLE REVERSED COMMA QUOTATION MARK
- * glyph variant of 201C
General punctuation
- U+2039 ‹ single left pointing angle quotation mark Pi
- html ‹
- sgml ‹
- aka LEFT POINTING SINGLE GUILLEMET
- * usually opening, sometimes closing
- ref U+003C < less than sign (Basic Latin)
- ref U+2329 〈 left pointing angle bracket (Miscellaneous Technical)
- ref U+3008 〈 left angle bracket (CJK Symbols and Punctuation)
- U+203A › single right pointing angle quotation mark Pf
- html ›
- sgml ›
- aka RIGHT POINTING SINGLE GUILLEMET
- * usually closing, sometimes opening
- ref U+003E > greater than sign (Basic Latin)
- ref U+232A 〉 right pointing angle bracket (Miscellaneous Technical)
- ref U+3009 〉 right angle bracket (CJK Symbols and Punctuation)
CJK Symbols and Punctuation
CJK symbols and punctuation
- U+300C 「 left corner bracket Ps
- ref U+2308 ⌈ left ceiling (Miscellaneous Technical)
- U+300D 」 right corner bracket Pe
- * used as quotation marks
- ref U+230B ⌋ right floor (Miscellaneous Technical)
- U+300E 『 left white corner bracket Ps
- U+300F 』 right white corner bracket Pe
- * used as quotation marks
- U+301D 〝 reversed double prime quotation mark Ps
- * sometimes depicted as double prime quotation mark
- ref U+201C “ left double quotation mark (General Punctuation)
- ref U+2036 ‶ reversed double prime (General Punctuation)
- U+301E 〞 double prime quotation mark Pe
- * this is a mistaken analogue to 201D; 301F is preferred
- ref U+201D ” right double quotation mark (General Punctuation)
- ref U+2033 ″ double prime (General Punctuation)
- U+301F 〟 low double prime quotation mark Pe
- * may be depicted as low inverse double prime quotation mark
CJK Compatibility Forms
Glyphs for vertical variants
- U+FE41 ﹁ presentation form for vertical left corner bracket Ps
- U+FE42 ﹂ presentation form for vertical right corner bracket Pe
- U+FE43 ﹃ presentation form for vertical left white corner bracket Ps
- U+FE44 ﹄ presentation form for vertical right white corner bracket Pe
Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms
Fullwidth ASCII variants
- U+FF02 " fullwidth quotation mark Po
- U+FF07 ' fullwidth apostrophe Po
Halfwidth CJK punctuation
- U+FF62 「 halfwidth left corner bracket Ps
- U+FF63 」 halfwidth right corner bracket Pe
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