What are… Dialogue tags?

A phrase included before, between, or after dialogue to indicate who is speaking by using the format of “Speaker [verb about how they spoke the sentence].”  Examples of dialogue tags include: he said, she asked, Mr. Tucker snapped, Sarah whispered, Marcus noted. It can also be done in a reverse order (snapped Mr. Tucker, whisperer Sarah, noted Marcus, etc.).

Dialogue Tag Punctuation

This is honestly one of the most common mistakes I’ve seen in newer writers on this site.  Dialogue tags have very specific punctuation rules that we will now go over.

There are three types of punctuation that people will use for dialogue when using dialogue tags.  The first two types are simple. When someone is exclaiming something, you use an exclamation mark.  When someone asks something, you use a question mark.

“Do you like the color pink?” Mariana asked.

“Of course I do!” Opal exclaimed, adjusting her pink dress.

However, what makes people stumble is the last and most common type of punctuation with dialogue tags, and that is dialogue that is neither an exclamation or a question mark.  The only other punctuation would be a period, right? You use a period at the end of sentences just like exclamation marks and question marks.

Wrong.  You NEVER use periods with dialogue tags.  In the place of periods, if you have a dialogue tag, you MUST use a comma (there are a few exceptions we will go over in a later chapter).

“I am going to the store.” Sam said. (WRONG!)

“I am going to the store,” Sam said. (RIGHT! :D)

“Don’t forget milk.” Dennis reminded her. (WRONG!)

“Don’t forget milk,” Dennis reminded her. (RIGHT! :D)

If, however, the sentence does not have a dialogue tag following it (let’s say it’s a single paragraph with only the dialogue), then you will use a period.

“I am going to the store,” (WRONG!)

“I am going to the store.” (RIGHT! :D)

“Don’t forget milk,” (WRONG!)

“Don’t forget milk.” (RIGHT! :D)

PLEASE NOTE! The punctuation is always inside of the quotation mark.

Dialogue tags don’t only come at the end of the sentence, and each placement of dialogue tags has its own special rule.

When the dialogue tag comes BEFORE the dialogue, you always place a comma between the tag and the dialogue.

Gabriella asks, “Would you like to sing with me?”

Troy yells, “But I’m a basketball player!”

I say, “My dog is randomly growing at me to try to get me to play with him.”

But wait, Cross, didn’t you say you don’t use periods when it comes to dialogue tags?  Why, yes, I did. But that’s only if the dialogue tag is AFTER the dialogue. In the example above, the dialogue is the end of the sentence containing the dialogue, so it has a period at the end.

The final placement of the dialogue tag is in the middle of the dialogue.  When deciding the punctuation of the dialogue tag, you must ask yourself a very important question: Is the dialogue interrupting a single sentence of dialogue OR two different sentences in the dialogue.  Depending on your answer changes the punctuation.

If your dialogue tag is interrupting a single sentence, you use a comma before and after the dialogue tag:

“I can’t believe,” said Mary, “that it’s already Friday.”

If your dialogue tag is interrupting two different sentences of dialogue, you use the usual dialogue tag rules.  Comma if it would otherwise be a period, exclamation mark if something is being exclaimed, question mark if something is being asked.  Be sure that a period is separating your tag from the following dialogue though, not another comma.

“I can’t believe it,” Mary said.  “It’s already Friday.”

“Are you sure?” asked Kasy.  “I really thought it was Thursday.”

“You’re so silly!” Nelly said.  “How could you think it was Thursday?”

I believe that is all for dialogue punctuation.  If you have any questions, be sure to ask!

Dialogue Capitalization

Another common error when it comes to dialogue tags is the capitalization of the tags.  I intentionally used all names in the previous section so that we could address capitalization here.

The rule for dialogue tag capitalization is very simple: if a word would be capitalized or lowercase if it was in the middle of a sentence, it will be capitalized or lowercase in the dialogue tag.  Translation: Proper nouns are capitalized, common nouns are lowercase.

Proper nouns are: names for specific people, places, or things (Jared, Mount Rushmore, La-Z-Boy).  Note: Sometimes people in books will nickname characters whose name they do not know, and this is counted as a specific person name.

Common nouns are: names for general people, places, or things (pronouns like he/she/they/it, the girl, the school, the car).

Here are examples of capitalization done CORRECTLY with the three different types of punctuation in dialogue.

Proper Nouns:

“I’m heading out!” Marlene called.

“What is the situation?” President Lincoln asked. 

“I am going to kill you,” snarled Tall Guy.

Common Nouns: 

“I’m heading out!” she called.*

“What is the situation?” asked the general.*

“I am going to kill you,” the man snarled.

Now, I want to let you in on a little secret: half of the time, your phone lies to you regarding two of the three different dialogue tag punctuation.  The starred spots? The question mark and the exclamation point with the common nouns? Your phone will lie to you about those spots. Because it sees the exclamation point and question mark, it *thinks* that you’ve started a new sentence so it tries to make you do this:

“I’m heading out!” She called.

This is incorrect.  You have to disobey your phone.  The common noun must be lowercase.  

Miscellaneous

Some basic dialogue rules that weren’t mentioned because they aren’t tag specific:

You start a new paragraph whenever there is a new speaker.

If you have a long speech that you have to break up into separate paragraphs, you do not use a quotation mark at the end of the paragraph until you come to the end of speech.

“Long speech.
“Long speech continued.
“Holy cow this is too long, you need to end it now.”

For those of you saying things like “but what about interruption punctuation” or “but what about action tags,” stick around, because that will come in later lessons.

Otherwise, if we missed anything, be sure to let us know so we can add to this!