In Russian, any “alien” speech expressed verbatim and included in the author’s text is called direct. In conversation she stands out with pauses and intonation. A letter can be highlighted in two ways: in one line "in selection" or writing each remark from a paragraph. Direct speech, punctuation for its proper design is a topic rather complicated for children. Therefore, when studying the rules alone is not enough, there must be obvious examples of writing such sentences.
How to highlight a dialogue on a letter
Direct speech “dialogue”, punctuation marks and writing conversations are a rather complicated topic that needs to be properly understood. Firstly, replicas belonging to different persons are most often recorded from a paragraph. For instance:
“And look into that nest: is there anything there?”
- There is nothing. Not a single testicle!
- Are there shells near the nest?
- There are no shells!
- What!? Not really a beast like to steal eggs - it’s necessary to trace!
This is a dialogue of two persons, drawn up with the help of paragraph selection, in which each new paragraph with a replica of one of the interlocutors should always begin with a dash and with a capital letter. Replicas in this case may consist of one or more sentences of a narrative, exclamation, or interrogative type.
Secondly, direct speech, punctuation marks after which are placed in a special order, can be written in one line. For such a design of the dialogue “into selection” without indicating to whom exactly they belong, each of them must be enclosed in quotation marks and highlighted with a dash. For instance:
"Well, what are you?" - “I'm afraid, what if the stairs fall?” “The ladder will not fall, but you can drop the basket with eggs!”
If after one of the statements author's notes follow, then the dash before the next phrase is omitted. And before the words of the author is a comma and a dash.
“She is sleeping,” said Tanya. "Where is sleeping, show!".
Direct speech before and after the author’s text
If, in the writing of the conversation of several people, the author's preliminary words are included, then a colon is placed after them. Moreover, it is mandatory in cases where there is no verb defining the continuation of the conversation, but direct speech is clearly visible. For instance:
Mother smiled:
- You are my clever girl!
Also, this phrase can be written in one line, only then you need to use quotation marks: For example:
Mother smiled: "You are my clever!"
It is worth noting that the unspoken thoughts or inner speech of the author is always marked with quotation marks, regardless of where the sentence is located. Also on the letter in quotation marks take the sounds of an echo. For instance:
Now I would have some hot tea, he thought.
I stand and think: “And why is this rain?”
"Aw, people?" echoed loudly.
The announcer's voice sounded clearly and loudly: “Attention, attention!”.
Before you write words of direct speech, after the author’s words always put a colon and open quotation marks. The replica always begins with a capital letter, before closing the quotation marks put an exclamation or question mark, and the dot only after the quotation marks.
Special cases of direct speech
There are some cases where after the words of the author there is direct speech, punctuation marks in which are slightly different from the above. Namely, if in the absence of a verb denoting a subsequent remark, one cannot put the words “and said,” “and thought,” “and exclaimed,” “and asked,” and the like, in such cases they do not put a colon after the author’s notes. For instance:
No one wanted to leave.
- Tell us another story!
My words confused everyone.
“So you don't trust us?”
How to highlight a quote in a letter
Approximately by the same rules the quotes given in the text are distinguished. If it is not given completely, then an ellipsis is placed in the place where the words are omitted. As a rule, quotes are always highlighted with commas, even if they are similar to indirect speech. Before the author’s speech, a quote with the first words omitted begins to be written with ellipsis and with a capital letter, if it is located in the middle of the sentence, then with a lower case. Here, as in the case of direct speech, colons and dashes are used, which are arranged according to the already known rules regarding the location of the quote.
Content inside direct speech
In the case when the author’s words should be directly inserted in the text, the utterances are enclosed in quotation marks along with the author’s notes. For instance:
“I’ll go to my grandmother,” said the baby, “and that’s it!”
There are times when quotation marks are not set at all, commas are used instead:
- If there is no clear indication of the person to whom the replica belongs, or when a well-known proverb is used in the text.
- When it is difficult to determine before us direct or indirect speech.
- If the phrase “says” is included in the statement. For example: I, says, will show you again !.
- If the statement contains an indication of the source. Most often this applies to periodicals. For example: Speech from the stage, the correspondent notes, blew up the audience with applause.
If at the breakup of statements the direct speech should not end with any sign, or a comma, a dash, a colon or a semicolon were provided, then a comma and a dash are put in front of the author’s words, and a dot and a dash in the end. Next, the remainder of the replica is written with a capital letter. For instance:
“I will be away for a few minutes,” said Helen. “I will be soon.”
In cases where a question mark or exclamation mark should have been placed in the first part of a direct speech before the break, then it is preceded by a dash and the author’s words, after which they put a point and continue after the dash to continue direct speech. A colon ellipsis is also preserved.
Instead of a conclusion
Direct speech, whose punctuation is not so difficult to learn, is very common in literary works. Therefore, books can be a good visual aid for exploring this topic. Indeed, visual perception, along with knowledge of the rules, can well consolidate in memory the knowledge on the subject of “Direct Speech”.
Punctuation marks, sentence patterns with direct speech and quotes in the text have been studied at the school for a year, which is understandable, because this section of the Russian language is quite voluminous and has many subtleties. However, the basic rules that are most often applied in writing are not so difficult to remember.