Quotations in Spanish: Comillas, «Angular Quotes» and Dialogue Dashes

Open a novel in Spanish and the punctuation looks wrong: quotes that point sideways («»), dialogue with no quotation marks at all, dashes doing jobs you’ve never seen them do. None of it is decoration — Spanish has its own quotation system, and once you know the three tools and one exception, it’s more consistent than English.

Start With What English Does

English has two kinds of quotation marks: double (“”) and single (‘’). American English prefers double quotes almost everywhere, reserving single quotes for quotations inside quotations, translations of foreign words, quoted or italicised text in newspaper headlines, and horticultural cultivars. British English often flips this — many publishers use single quotes first — and it places full stops and commas that aren’t part of the quotation outside the closing mark. (That last point is a famously grey area even among British style guides, so don’t lose sleep over it.)

Keep those two systems in mind, because Spanish borrows from both.

Spanish Has Three Kinds of Quotation Marks

Spanish uses double and single quotes too — comillas inglesas (“”) and comillas simples (‘’) — but adds a third, outermost pair: comillas españolas («»). You’ll also hear these called latinas, francesas, bajas, angulares, or even de sargento (sergeant’s stripes), but they’re all the same angular quotes.

The mapping from English is simple:

• Where American English uses double quotes, Spanish uses comillas españolas («»).
• Where English uses single quotes, Spanish uses them too.
• For punctuation placement, Spanish follows the British standard: full stops and commas go outside the closing quote.

That frees up double quotes for the middle layer, giving Spanish three clean levels of nesting where English has to alternate its two:

Él escribió en el periódico: «Su mujer le dijo: “Qué ‘majo’ eres”» (He wrote in the newspaper, ’His wife said to him, “How ‘nice’ you are”’)

Plenty of modern publishers and writers have swapped the traditional comillas españolas for plain double quotes, but the angular quotes are still everywhere — you need to read them comfortably even if you never type them.

Dialogue Doesn’t Use Quotation Marks at All

Here’s the exception that trips up every learner: written dialogue in Spanish uses no quotation marks. Instead it uses the raya — the em dash, traditionally the width of a letter m, longer than a hyphen.

Every line of dialogue starts with a dash, with no space between the dash and the first word:

—¿Qué has hecho hoy? (What have you done today?)

—Poco tío, la verdad. (Nothing mate, to be honest)

When a narrator interjects, add a space and another dash before the interjection:

—¿Qué has hecho hoy? —preguntó Tomás. (asked Tomás)

—Poco tío, la verdad —dijo Pablo. (said Pablo)

If the same person keeps talking after the interjection, close the interjection with a dash on the other side, then punctuate and continue:

—¿Qué has hecho hoy? —preguntó Tomás—. Pareces muy cansado. (You look really tired)

—Poco tío, la verdad —dijo Pablo—. Pasé la noche en vela. (I was up all night)

The Two Mistakes to Avoid

The dash rules only have two real traps. First, never put punctuation before the narrator’s interjection:

—Poco tío, la verdad. —dijo Pablo— Pasé la noche en vela. ❌ Incorrect

Second, never add a stray dash at the end of a line of dialogue:

—Poco tío, la verdad —dijo Pablo—. ❌ Incorrect

—Poco tío, la verdad —dijo Pablo—. Pasé la noche en vela—. ❌ Incorrect

The dash opens dialogue and brackets the narrator — it never closes a line.

The Takeaway

Three levels of quotes — «», “”, ‘’ — from the outside in, punctuation outside the closing mark, and dashes instead of quotes for dialogue. When you’re the one writing, default to comillas españolas («») for the outer level — it’s what the RAE recommends and it reads as polished — though plain double quotes won’t raise any eyebrows. The one habit to unlearn completely is English-style quoted dialogue: get the raya rules right and you’ll punctuate quotations better than plenty of native writers.