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PaperclipPerfector  14hr ago (text post)   679 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for May 1, 2026

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Russian usually uses quotation dashes for dialogue and guillemets for internal monologue and nested direct speech. If guillemetted direct speech is broken by the words of the author, it's quotation dashes again, but only if it's surrounded with direct speech on both sides. The full rules for punctuating direct speech with guillemets are so baroque and obscure that I have to keep them open in the browser to consult them when writing, even though I have no problems with punctuation in Russian otherwise.

Here's what the guillemets style looks like:

Alice asked Bob: «What's for dinner?» — «Burgers, — replied Bob and added: — Medium rare». — «Oh, just how I like them! — exclaimed Alice. — Thank you, Bob!» — «My pleasure», — he smiled.

And here's the more common quotation bar style:

Alice asked Bob:

— What's for dinner?

— Burgers, — replied Bob and added: — Medium rare.

— Oh, just how I like them! — exclaimed Alice. — Thank you, Bob!

— My pleasure, — he smiled.

P.S. I actually found an error in my punctuation as I was copying these examples into the comment.

Wow. The first example is pretty interesting. So the dashes separate both direct speech from different people and the author’s voice, while the guillemets can be unbroken when they surround the author’s voice provided that it’s clearly delineated by the dashes. Weird, but fun. And confusing, even though it’s obvious enough to read, to write.

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