Jump to content

« »

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

« U+00AB, «
LEFT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK
ª
[U+00AA]
Latin-1 Supplement ¬
[U+00AC]

» U+00BB, »
RIGHT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK
º
[U+00BA]
Latin-1 Supplement ¼
[U+00BC]
See also: » « and 《 》

Translingual

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

A doubling of ‹ ›.

Design

[edit]

The guillemets were set in the middle of the metal type so that a single sort could be turned and used as either an opening or a closing mark.[1]

Punctuation mark

[edit]

« » (English name guillemets)

  1. Enclose a quotation in some languages.
    • 1912, Northern China, The Valley of the Blue River, Korea[1] (in English), Hachette & Company, →OCLC, page 400[2]:
      At a sharp bend in the river, the little walled-town of Shih-shou Hsien, on the slopes of several little wooded hills, two of which are crowned by temples (430 ft. high) ; this is the « chief-place » of a district in the prefecture of Ching-chou Fu.

Derived terms

[edit]

See also

[edit]

Further reading

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Frederick Hamilton (1920: 31) A Primer of Information about the Marks of Punctuation and Their Use Both Grammatically and Typographically.

Arabic

[edit]

Punctuation mark

[edit]

« »

  1. Encloses a quotation.

French

[edit]

Punctuation mark

[edit]

« »

  1. Encloses a quotation.

Usage notes

[edit]

An embedded (inner) quotation may be set off with “ ” (in France) or ‹ › (in Switzerland), within « » for the outer quotation. The languages of Switzerland use a common convention of « » for a simple or embedding quotation and ‹ › for an embedded quotation. For lines of dialogue, the quotation dash is generally preferred.

Greek

[edit]

Punctuation mark

[edit]

« »

  1. Encloses a quotation.

Usage notes

[edit]
  • “ ” (formerly ‟ ”) enclose an embedded (inner) quotation, within guillemets for the outer quotation.

Portuguese

[edit]

Punctuation mark

[edit]

« »

  1. (Portugal) Encloses a quotation.

Usage notes

[edit]

Portugal follows a convention of guillemets for a simple or outer quotation, “ ” for an embedded quotation, and ‘ ’ for a doubly embedded quotation or mention. Guillemets are not used in Brazil. For lines of dialogue, the quotation dash is preferred.

Russian

[edit]

Punctuation mark

[edit]

« »

  1. Encloses a quotation.

Usage notes

[edit]

An embedded (inner) quotation may be set off with „ “, within guillemets for the outer quotation. For lines of dialogue, the quotation dash is generally preferred.

Spanish

[edit]

Punctuation mark

[edit]

« »

  1. Encloses a quotation.
    • 2025 April 9, Jennifer Hansler, “USAID informa a su personal extranjero que será despedido a mediados de agosto”, in CNN en Español[3]:
      El correo electrónico indicaba que «se espera que casi 1.000 programas continúen bajo el Departamento de Estado u otros socios del gobierno estadounidense, y estos esfuerzos probablemente requerirán profesionales cualificados y con experiencia».
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Usage notes

[edit]

See also

[edit]

Vietnamese

[edit]

Punctuation mark

[edit]

« »

  1. (dated) Encloses a quotation.

Usage notes

[edit]
  • When used, the embedded (inner) quotation may be set off also with guillemets; in similar fashion as the outer quotation. For lines of dialogue, the en dash or hyphen or (rarer) quotation dash is generally preferred.
  • Guillemets could be found mostly in older literature, particularly in books translated from Russian.