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The short answer
Use double quotation marks around the passage you are quoting and single quotation marks around any quotation inside it.
Smith wrote, "The director called it 'a minor setback' and moved on" (2023, p. 45).
The sentences on this page that show punctuation are invented for the purpose, with "Smith," "Lee" and their dates standing in for whatever source you are quoting; they are not citations of real works. Where a style authority publishes its own worked example — as Chicago does for secondary citations, below — that example is used instead and attributed.
| Situation | Outer marks | Inner marks |
|---|---|---|
| American English (APA, MLA, Chicago) | Double " " | Single ' ' |
| British English (Oxford style and most UK publishers) | Single ' ' | Double " " |
| Block quote, any style | None (indented) | Double " " |
| Three levels deep (American) | Double " " | Single ' ', then double " " again |
The rest of this guide covers where the punctuation goes, how each style handles it, and which source to cite.
Step by step
- Put double quotation marks around the whole passage you are quoting.
- Change any double quotation marks inside that passage to single marks. This is a permitted silent change; you do not need to flag it.
- Keep the wording inside both sets of marks exactly as it appears in your source.
- Place periods and commas inside the closing marks (American style).
- Add your citation for the source you actually read.
American vs British quotation marks
| American | British | |
|---|---|---|
| Outer quotation | "double" | 'single' |
| Quotation inside it | 'single' | "double" |
| Period or comma at the end | Inside the closing marks | Inside only if it belongs to the quoted material |
American:
"When the lead researcher said 'all results are preliminary,' the committee paused," Smith recalled.
British:
'When the lead researcher said "all results are preliminary", the committee paused', Smith recalled.
British practice is less uniform than American. Oxford University Press style and the Australian Government Style Manual use single marks first; several UK newspapers use double marks first. If you are writing for a UK or Australian institution, check its style guide and stay consistent.
Punctuation with nested quotes
In American style, periods and commas go inside all closing quotation marks. When both quotations end at the same point, the single and double marks sit together:
Smith noted, "The director called it 'a minor setback.'"
Question marks and exclamation points go with the quotation they belong to:
Smith asked, "Did the director really say 'a minor setback'?"
Did Smith really write that it was "a 'minor' setback"?
In the first sentence the question is Smith's, so the question mark sits inside the double marks but outside the single marks. In the second the question is yours, so it goes outside everything.
APA style (7th edition)
- Short quotations (fewer than 40 words): double marks outside, single marks for quoted material inside.
- Block quotations (40 words or more): no outer marks; use double marks for any quotation inside the block. The parenthetical citation goes after the final punctuation, with no period after it.
- Citing: if you read only Smith, name the original in your sentence and cite Smith with "as cited in." Only Smith goes in the reference list.
[Original author]'s claim that "[quoted words]" ([original year], as cited in [Author], [year], p. [page]) shaped the committee's decision.
APA's own worked example of this form is (Rabbitt, 1982, as cited in Lyon et al., 2014); see its secondary sources page.
APA asks you to use secondary sources sparingly: when the original is out of print, unavailable, or only available in a language you do not read. The rest of APA's quotation rules — block-quote thresholds, page numbers, changes inside a quotation — are in our APA guide.
MLA style (9th edition)
- In your text: double marks outside, single inside. For a third level, MLA's pattern is double, single, double.
- Block quotations (more than four lines of prose, or more than three lines of verse): no outer marks; quotations inside the block take double marks.
- When the whole passage you quote is already in quotation marks in your source: one pair of double marks is usually enough, as long as your sentence makes clear who is speaking.
- Citing: use "qtd. in" for an indirect source, and list only the source you read in Works Cited.
[Original author] described the results as "[quoted words]" (qtd. in [Author] [page]).
Chicago style
- Run-in quotations: double marks outside, single marks inside. Chicago notes the British alternative but recommends the American pattern.
- Block quotations (Chicago suggests 100 words or more; Turabian says five or more lines): no outer marks; inner quotations take double marks.
- Citing: Chicago discourages citing a source you have not seen. If you must, the note gives the original first, then "quoted in" and the source you read.
- Louis Zukofsky, "Sincerity and Objectification," Poetry 37 (February 1931): 269, quoted in Bonnie Costello, Marianne Moore: Imaginary Possessions (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981), 78.
The Zukofsky note is the example the Chicago Manual of Style itself uses. Our MLA and Chicago guides cover the rest of each style, including what changes when the outer source is a play, cited by act, scene and line, or a poem, cited by line number, rather than by page.
Block quotes with nested quotes
A block quote is indented instead of enclosed in quotation marks, so the first level of quotation inside it uses double marks:
Smith described the scene in detail:
The committee members sat in stunned silence. When the lead researcher finally spoke, saying "all results must be considered preliminary at this stage," several members audibly gasped. The implications were clear to everyone present. (2023, p. 45)
Who do you cite?
You read Source A, and Source A quotes Source B. You have two honest options.
Option 1: Cite the source you actually read (a secondary citation). Name the original speaker or author in your sentence and use "as cited in" (APA), "qtd. in" (MLA) or "quoted in" (Chicago). Your reference list includes only the source you read.
Option 2: Find and cite the original. If the inner quote carries weight in your argument, track down the original and cite it directly. Secondary sources sometimes misquote or trim context, so check the wording against the original when you can.
Go to the original when the quote is central to your argument or is evidence for a claim, and when it is reasonably accessible. A secondary citation is fine when the original is out of print, untranslated or lost, or when your point is about how the secondary source used the quote.
The mechanics of option 1 — what goes in the reference list, and what the "as cited in" wording looks like in each style — are in citing a secondary source. If the reason you cannot reach the original is a paywall rather than a lost edition, citing sources you can't fully access covers what you may and may not claim to have read.
Common mistakes
- Double marks at both levels: the reader cannot tell where the inner quote ends.
- Keeping single marks inside a block quote: with no outer marks, the inner quote goes back to double.
- Citing the inner source when you only read the outer one: this misrepresents your research.
- Over-nesting: at three levels, paraphrase the outer layer.
Sources
- American Psychological Association, Quotations and Secondary sources, APA Style; Publication Manual, 7th ed., sections 8.6 and 8.33
- MLA Style Center, How do I punctuate a quotation within a quotation within a quotation?, How many quotation marks should I use? and Citing indirect sources
- The Chicago Manual of Style, chapters on quotations and on citations taken from secondary sources
- Australian Government Style Manual, Quotation marks
All accessed 21 September 2026.
