Dialogue and Quotation Marks — Answer Key
Part A: Multiple Choice
Circle the best answer for each question.
1. Which sentence correctly shows a dialogue tag?
A) "Wait!" she gasped.
B) "Wait!" She turned around.
C) "Wait!" The door slammed.
D) "Wait!" Dust rose from the path.
Gasped is a dialogue verb that identifies how the speaker delivered the line.
2. Which sentence is an action beat, not a dialogue tag?
A) "Stop," he whispered.
B) "Stop." He raised his hand.
C) "Stop," she answered.
D) "Stop," Dad shouted.
Raising his hand is a physical action, not a verb of speaking, making it an action beat.
3. Which line is punctuated correctly?
A) "Run", he shouted.
B) "Run." he shouted.
C) "Run!" he shouted.
D) "Run he shouted!"
Exclamation points stay inside the quotes, and the dialogue tag is not capitalized.
4. Which is correct for an embedded quotation?
A) Mia said, Tom told me hello.
B) Mia said, "Tom told me hello."
C) Mia said, "Tom told me 'hello.'"
D) Mia said "Tom told me 'hello.'"
Single quotes mark a quote within a quote, and a comma precedes the opening quotation mark.
Part B: Fill in the Blank
Write the correct answer on each line.
1. "I can't wait!" Lily cheered, jumping up.
Dialogue verbs like cheered convey both the act of speaking and the emotion.
2. She turned away. "Wait!" she begged.
Exclamation points show urgent or emotional speech and stay inside the closing quote.
3. Dad said, "Mom told me, 'Be careful.'"
Single quotation marks enclose a quote within a quote in American writing.
4. "Hello," Anna said. She smiled and waved.
Action beats are full sentences and end with their own punctuation, separate from dialogue.
5. An action beat shows what a speaker does rather than says.
Action beats describe what a character does, while dialogue tags describe how they speak.