How Do You Type Quotation Marks in LaTeX?

LaTeX does not use the ordinary straight double-quote character (") to produce typographic opening and closing quotation marks. In traditional LaTeX input, use backticks for opening marks and apostrophes for closing marks. For frequent quotations, the csquotes package provides a convenient command that can manage nested quotes and follow the document’s language settings.

The basic LaTeX quotation marks

For double quotation marks, type two backticks at the beginning of the quotation and two apostrophes at the end:

``This is a quotation.''

The rendered result is “This is a quotation.” The opening marks are backticks (usually the key below Esc on a US keyboard), not ordinary apostrophes. The closing marks are apostrophes.

For single quotation marks, use one backtick to open and one apostrophe to close:

`A phrase in single quotes.'

This produces ‘A phrase in single quotes.’ These forms work in ordinary LaTeX text without an extra package.

A complete example using csquotes

The csquotes package is useful if you have several quotations, nested quotations, or documents in different languages. It provides \enquote{...} so you do not have to enter opening and closing marks by hand.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}

\begin{document}

Traditional input: ``She said, `Read the label,' and left.''

With csquotes: \enquote{She said, \enquote{Read the label,} and left.}

\end{document}

This is a minimal document that can be compiled with a standard LaTeX installation. fontenc selects T1 font encoding for pdfLaTeX; babel sets English as the document language; and csquotes supplies \enquote. Load csquotes after babel so it can use the language settings. If you write in another language, set that language with babel or the language package appropriate to your document. The quotation style chosen by csquotes can depend on that setting.

In the second sentence, the inner \enquote is nested inside the outer one. The package selects a suitable alternate style for the nested quotation. This is easier to maintain than manually switching between single and double marks, particularly if the document’s language or quotation style changes.

Which method should you use?

Use the backtick-and-apostrophe form for a short document or an isolated quotation. Use csquotes when quotations recur, when quotes are nested, or when you need quotation conventions to follow a language or style setup. You can also use \enquote for a single quote without nesting; its main benefit is that the package controls the quotation style consistently.

Apostrophes in ordinary words do not need special quote commands. For example, you can type don't directly. The apostrophe in that word is not the opening mark of a quotation.

Quotation-mark conventions differ by language and editorial style. English-language publishing commonly uses double marks for an outer quotation and single marks for a quotation inside it, but some styles and regions use different arrangements. If a publisher or instructor specifies a style, follow that requirement. With csquotes, check the package and language configuration when the output does not match the requested convention.

Common mistakes

• Typing straight double quotes: "quoted text" does not reliably produce paired typographic opening and closing marks. Use “quoted text” or \enquote{quoted text} instead.
• Using apostrophes at both ends: Two apostrophes do not make a correctly oriented pair. Start with backticks and end with apostrophes.
• Forgetting nested-quote conventions: Manually typed nested quotes may use the wrong style. \enquote can select alternate marks for nested quotations.
• Assuming punctuation placement is universal: Whether commas and periods go inside or outside quotation marks depends on the language and style guide. LaTeX will not decide this for hand-entered quote marks; follow the required editorial convention.
• Putting a long quotation in quotation marks: For an extended quotation, a quotation environment or a package such as csquotes’ displayquote environment may be more appropriate than inline marks. Use the format required by your style guide.