Single and double quotes are used for enclosing text, but their usage varies between American and British English. They can also be used to offset a single word or phrase, with different standards for punctuation placement.
Single and double quotes are two different forms of a common typographical mark, and knowing when to use them can be a little tricky at first. Matters of style are always the subject of much debate and the choice of single or double quotes is largely stylistic, but with a little knowledge you can understand why some people choose to use one over the other.
First, let’s define what exactly these signs are. Double quotes are what most Americans think of as simply quotation marks, two lines that can be straight or curved, enclosing text “like this.” Single quotes, on the other hand, are the one-line version of these, a single straight line or a single curved line, which the English usually call a quotation mark, “like this one”. Strictly speaking, both single and double quotation marks should be of the curved variety, but it’s increasingly common to see straight apostrophes and quotation marks, their straight counterparts, also used as quotation marks.
In American English, the basic rule of single and double quotes is simply that double quotes should be used by default to enclose quotes. Single quotes, on the other hand, are used to enclose quotes that exist within the quotes. In British English, however, this standard rule is reversed, with the default mode being reversed comma, and double quotation marks are only used for quotation marks within quotation marks. Over time, however, this has gradually shifted and it is now not uncommon to see many followers of British English start with double quotes.
The different types of quotes can also be used as a way to offset a single word or phrase within a sentence, when nothing is actually being quoted. This is usually meant to indicate that the writer means the word ironically or sarcastically. It can be used for other reasons too, however, as in the sentence: On the map, ‘X’ marked the spot.
Again, we have a cultural difference as to when to use single and double quotes. The American standard is still largely to use double quotes to offset a word, sometimes referred to as a “scary quote,” while the British standard calls for the use of double quotes. This distinction is largely held, and it is relatively rare to see a writer of British English use double quotation marks to compensate for a single word or phrase.
This is all further complicated by the fact that Americans often use the British standard of single quotes when offsetting a word. And, when single or double marks are used for this purpose, it is also common to adopt the British standard of placing punctuation outside quotation marks, as in ending a sentence with “so”. Punctuation is normally enclosed in quotation marks in American English.
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