In Russian, any "foreign" speech, expressed verbatim and included in the author's text, is called direct. In conversation, she stands out with pauses and intonation. And on a letter it can be highlighted in two ways: in one line “in the selection” or writing each remark from a paragraph. Direct speech, punctuation marks for its correct design is a rather difficult topic for children. Therefore, when studying the rules alone, it is not enough, there must be clear examples of writing such sentences.
How to highlight dialogue in a letter
Direct speech "dialogue", punctuation marks and the design of conversations in writing is a rather complicated topic that needs to be properly understood. Firstly, replicas belonging to different persons are most often written from a paragraph. For example:
- Look into that nest, is there anything there?
-There is nothing. Not a single testicle!
- Are there any shells near the nest?
- There are no shells!
- What is it!? Not really some beast that got into the habit of stealing eggs - you need to follow!
This is a dialogue between two people, designed using indentation, in which each new paragraph with a replica of one of the interlocutors must always begin with a dash and with a capital letter. In this case, the replicas may consist of one or more sentences of a narrative, exclamatory or interrogative type.
Secondly, direct speech, after which punctuation marks are placed in a special order, can be written in one line. For such a design of the dialogue "in the selection" without specifying who exactly they belong to, each of them must be enclosed in quotation marks and highlighted with a dash. For example:
"Well, what are you?" - "I'm afraid, what if the ladder falls?" - "The ladder won't fall, but you can drop the basket with eggs!"
If one of the statements is followed by author's notes, the dash before the next phrase is omitted. And before the words of the author, a comma and a dash are placed.
"She's sleeping," Tanya said. “Where sleeps, show me!”.
Direct speech before and after the author's text
If the writing of a conversation of several people includes the author's preliminary words, then a colon is put after them. Moreover, it is also mandatory in cases where there is no verb that determines the continuation of the conversation, but direct speech is clearly visible. For example:
Mother smiled:
- You are my smart girl!
Alsothis phrase can be written in one line, only then you need to use quotes: For example:
Mother smiled: "You are my good girl!"
It is worth noting that the author's unspoken thoughts or inner speech are always quoted, no matter where it is in the sentence. Also on the letter in quotation marks take the sounds of the echo. For example:
I'd like hot tea now, he thought.
I stand and think: “Why is this rain?”.
"Hey people?" echoed loudly.
The announcer's voice sounded clear and loud: "Attention, attention!".
Before you write the words of direct speech, always put a colon after the author's words and open quotes. The replica is always started with a capital letter, before closing quotes put an exclamation or question marks, and a period only after the quotes.
Special cases of direct speech design
There are some cases where the words of the author are followed by direct speech, the punctuation marks in which are slightly different from those described above. Namely, if in the absence of a verb denoting the subsequent remark, it is impossible to put the words “and said”, “and thought”, “and exclaimed”, “and asked” and the like, in such cases a colon is not put after the author’s notes. For example:
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 according to the same rules, the ones given in the text are distinguishedquotes. If it is not given in full, then three dots are put in the place where words are omitted. As a rule, quotations are always separated by 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 an ellipsis and with a capital letter, but if it is located in the middle of a sentence, then with a lowercase letter. Here, as in the case of direct speech, colons and dashes are used, which are arranged according to already known rules regarding the location of the quote.
Author's notes inside direct speech
In the case when it is necessary to insert the author's words into direct speech in the text, the statements are enclosed in quotation marks along with the author's notes. For example:
"I'll go to my grandmother - said the kid - and that's it!"
There are cases when quotes are not put at all, commas are used instead:
- If there is no clear indication of the person to whom the remark belongs, or when a well-known proverb is used in the text.
- When it is difficult to determine direct or indirect speech in front of us.
- If the word "says" is included in the statement. For example: I, he says, will show you more!.
- If an indication of the source is placed in the statement. Most often this applies to periodicals. For example: The speech from the stage, the correspondent notes, blew up the hall with applause.
If, when breaking statements, direct speech should not have ended with any sign, or a comma, dash, colon or semicolon was provided, then a comma and a dash are put before the words of the author, and at the end - a dot anddash. Further, the rest of the remark is written with a capital letter. For example:
"I'll be away for a few minutes," Lenochka said. “I’ll be there soon.”
In cases where in the first part of direct speech before the break there should have been a question or exclamation mark, then it is placed before the dash and the author's words, after which they put a dot and then continue the direct speech after the dash. The ellipsis and colon are also preserved.
Instead of a conclusion
Direct speech, the punctuation marks of which are not so difficult to learn, is very common in literary works. Therefore, books can be a good visual aid for studying this topic. After all, visual perception, together with knowledge of the rules, can well consolidate knowledge on the topic “Direct Speech” in memory.
Punctuation marks, sentence schemes with the arrangement of direct speech and quotations in the text are studied at school for a single 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 used in writing are not so difficult to remember.
