# Quick question about dialogue



## HiveMindFury (Jan 2, 2010)

I don't really get how capitalisation works with dialogue. Not sure how to explain, so here's an example:

"She slapped me!" said Bill

Should "said" have a capital "s" or not? Is there a hard and fast rule, such as "You never capitalise" or does it depend on the punctuation of the preceding sentence or something?


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## Atrak (Jan 2, 2010)

Hmmm...in a case like this, I think that yeah, 'said' should be capitalized. A good habit would be to, if you're not sure, rewrite it so that you are  .



> "She slapped me!" Bill said.



Although that example is a little dry. I prefer something like...



> "She slapped me!" Bill exclaimed, clasping a hand to his red cheek.


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## foozzzball (Jan 2, 2010)

...

A quotation starts with a capitalization, unless it has been interrupted. In all other ways, sentences with quotations are normal.

Eg: 'Yes,' said Lola. (This is grammatically weird. Usually it's (Noun) said.)

Eg: 'Yes,' Lola said, 'definitely.' ('Yes, definitely,' being the quotation.)

Eg: Lola said, 'Yes, definitely.'

Etc etc. The dialogue tag doesn't get some kind of magic special-time capital, AFAIK.


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## Atrak (Jan 2, 2010)

Yes, but his dialogue didn't use commas, it used an exclamation point, which is an end punctuation mark.


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## foozzzball (Jan 2, 2010)

... An exclamation point _is_ a comma-like mark that does double duty as a period. It's rare nowadays because people are shockingly misinformed. (Furthermore, '"Why yes." Said John.' is a wholly ungrammatical nightmare.)


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## Atrak (Jan 2, 2010)

foozzzball said:


> ... An exclamation point _is_ a comma-like mark that does double duty as a period. It's rare nowadays because people are shockingly misinformed. (*Furthermore, '"Why yes." Said John.' is a wholly ungrammatical nightmare.*)



Not sure about that first part...but I agree wholeheartedly with the bold  . ALWAYS use a comma in that case  .


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## M. LeRenard (Jan 3, 2010)

Foozzz is right, on all counts.  "Said Bill" is part of the sentence; if you write it backwards: "Bill said, 'She slapped me!'"  The comma indicates that 'Bill said' isn't the whole sentence, that the quotation is part of the same sentence.  Same goes if it's reversed.  So 'said' would not be capitalized in the sentence: "'She slapped me!' said Bill."  Remove the ! and you get, "'She slapped me,' said Bill."  Which you understand is correct.  So why make it into two sentences just because there's an exclamation point instead of a comma?  The answer is, you don't.
Same goes for question marks: "'Did she slap me?' asked Bill."

I think I discussed this in the common mistakes thread, actually, because I see people screwing it up all the freaking time.


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## HiveMindFury (Jan 3, 2010)

Thanks guys! If I have any more issues with dialogue I'll post a reply on this thread (no sense making a whole new thread)


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## Murphy Z (Jan 3, 2010)

> "'She slapped me!' said Bill."


 
As a side note, I don't like exclamatories (!) followed by said. It seems to dilute the exclamation. I suppose "exclaimed" is better, but I try to have them stand alone:

"What happened Bill?" [I'm only putting "Bill" here to introduce the character]
"She slapped me!"

or, have the character do something:

"She slapped me!" Bill hid behind Dan.

Also watch that you don't become confusing:

"She slapped me!" Bill cried.

Did he "cry out" or go boo-hoo?

so use:

... "Bill cried out" or "Bill started crying."


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## M. LeRenard (Jan 3, 2010)

Murphy Z said:


> As a side note, I don't like exclamatories (!) followed by said. It seems to dilute the exclamation. I suppose "exclaimed" is better, but I try to have them stand alone:


Exclaimed is redundant, though.  The *excla*mation mark implies that he's *excla*iming something.
I like stand-alones for these too, just because it's more convenient.


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