Writers' Workshop

Grammar Help: Dialogue Tags

What are Dialogue Tags?

So, for those of you who have seen the previous first chapter, I have decided to break up dialogue tag into a few different parts, because there are a few very important aspects of dialogue tag, but it breeches out of grammar territory and into writing territory. So this segment will focus purely on the grammar aspect.

To those who have come here looking for grammar help, you may be asking yourself just what a dialogue tag is. To put it as simply as I could, dialogue tags are the bits that come prior to, after, or in the middle of dialogue to explain who spoke the dialogue, and at times explaining how it was said. Here are some examples with the dialogue tag bolded:

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"Can we go to the moon?" Aaron asked.

"That's insane!" Ellen exclaimed.

"You know, I think it sounds pretty awesome," Tobias said.

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... Wait. What do you mean I did that last one wrong? No I didn't. Oh... Ooooh! You don't know how to punctuate dialogue correctly, do you? Well, that's okay. We will just fix that right up, dearie! Then you can make sure to never do it again and appease people who rage every time they see this error. Totally not talking about myself or anything.... <_<

Yeah, I can't be serious to save my life in these things. I will try to be serious here though.

Dialogue Punctuation

So, dialogue punctuation. There are two places the punctuation can be. Either it's only at the end, or its at the beginning and the end.

Since it's a very simple explanation, I will explain the beginning and the end sort. If the dialogue tag comes prior to the dialogue, you put a comma between the dialogue tag and the quotation mark. Examples:

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She said, "This will be a fun trip."

Tyrone asked, "When will we be there?"

Nelson yelled, "Get back here!"

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See up there? There is basic punctuation at the end that varies based on the way it is spoken, but no matter what, it is led into by a comma.

There is the rare occasion in which you do not come to a complete stop after the dialogue. When this occurs, you will normally see a comma used.

She called, "I'll be back," over her shoulder as she darted away.

It could be a question mark or an exclamation mark as well, but you normally see a comma.

Now that we have punctuation with the dialogue tag prior to the dialogue, let's discuss the punctuation if the dialogue tag comes after the dialogue.

There are four types of punctuation normally seen at the end of dialogue. They are an exclamation mark (!), a question mark (?), a period (.), and a comma (,).

The exclamation mark and question mark are typically used correctly. If the person is yelling or exclaiming, an exclamation mark is used. If they are asking a question, a question mark is used.

It is the next distinction that is ABSOLUTELY VITAL to take note of, because it is the most frequent dialogue punctuation mistake.

If the dialogue ends with a normal statement (as in not exclaiming or questioning), then you use a period or a comma. What decides which you use is whether or not you use a dialogue tag.

If there is a dialogue tag following the dialogue, you use a comma.

If there is not a dialogue tag following the dialogue, you use a period.

Example:

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"I don't care," I said.

"You really should." Anthony glared at me, his arms crossed.

I raised an eyebrow. "That's just what you think."

"It is not," he retorted.

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Get the difference?

Now, there is one other place the dialogue can be that affects punctuation, and that is in the middle of dialogue. Now, what do I mean by that?

This is NOT what I mean by that.

"I don't know," I said. "Maybe a cup of tea?"

There was no difference in punctuation there. What I am meaning is when you break up dialogue with a dialogue that which, without the dialogue tag, would have been one complete sentence.

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"It's absolutely insane how popular he is," Mary grumbled. (Normally used way)

"It's absolutely insane," Mary grumbled, "how popular he is." (Other option on how to do it)

Because there is no complete stop until the end of the dialogue, the dialogue tag in the middle has a comma punctuation on both sides.

Any questions before we move on to our next subject? Okay then!

Noun and Pronoun Usage

Okay, so, when we write dialogue tags, we use a noun and then a verb, yes? Well, another common error people have is when they capitalize verbs after a dialogue tag.

Here are the instances in which you capitalize the noun that is part of the dialogue tag:

■It is a name
■It is a title
■It is possibly a temporary nickname set for someone

There may be a few other instances, but these are the main ones.

Whenever you use a pronoun (he, she, the girl, etc), you keep it lower case.

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"How are you?" she asked.

"I am doing fine," the young man replied.

"That's great to hear!" his coworker yelled.

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This applies whenever the dialogue follows or is in the middle of dialogue.

Just because your phone wants to capitalize the letter if you have a question mark or exclamation mark does not mean it is right.

The only time you use a capital letter after the dialogue is if there is no dialogue tag. Which, yes, is an option. But that's being covered next lesson.

So if it's a noun in the dialogue tag, capitalize. If it's a pronoun, lower case. If it isn't a dialogue tag at all, upper case.

I believe that is all for this lesson. If I missed anything or you think I should expand upon something, let me know in the comment section below.

~Written by Cross-Warrior