Template talk:Talk quote inline

quotation marks and apostrophes

When writing prose, and there's a need to nest quotations, we have specialized templates (e.g. {{single+double}}) we can use to distinguish apostrophes and quotation marks. For example,

Anthony heard on the subway the other day, "She actually said, 'Oh my god, Beckie, look at her butt.'"

When using a citation template's |quote= parameter, if the text begins or ends with an apostrophe, the citation template also automatically applies that distinguishing spacing, too. For example,

Mix-a-Lot, Sir. "Baby Got Back". Mack Daddy. 'It is so big. She looks like one of those rap guys' girlfriends', she continued.

However, when using this template, combining the nested quoting, we get both punctuations abutting each other with no gap (looking like a triple-tick mark). For example,

She expressed her confusion, elaborating, 'Who understands those rap guys?'

Can such automatic quotation mark-apostrophe-spacing be implemented in this template, too? — Fourthords | =Λ= | 20:26, 19 June 2025 (UTC)

The citation templates make this happen with Lua magic, which is above my pay grade. A workaround is to use one of the quote-mark-spacing templates, like this:

She expressed her confusion, elaborating, 'Who understands those rap guys?'

Someone else may have a better answer. – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:00, 14 July 2025 (UTC)

@Fourthords: I have made a sandbox version with kerning similar to {{citation}}.

For the live template, {{talk quote inline |'Text in apostrophes' |q=yes}} produces: 'Text in apostrophes'

For the sandbox version, {{talk quote inline/sandbox |'Text in apostrophes' |q=yes}} produces: 'Text in apostrophes'

Testing that it only adds the space when needed, {{talk quote inline/sandbox |Text without apostrophes |q=yes}} produces: Text without apostrophes

PrimeHunter (talk) 16:23, 29 August 2025 (UTC)

This spacing looks good to me. Do we also want to roll out the size changes inserted by Matma Rex, or is that still in the experimental stage? – Jonesey95 (talk) 17:01, 29 August 2025 (UTC)

I still think the font size changes are a good idea, but the discussion about it at village pump only received one comment (by isaacl) and it was rather lukewarm, so I didn't feel comfortable proposing the change. Matma Rex talk 18:50, 29 August 2025 (UTC)

For reference, my responses on the proposed changes starts with one about personal preference, followed by one where I think it's better not to implement the proposed changes. isaacl (talk) 21:38, 29 August 2025 (UTC)

That looks great! Thanks so much! — Fourthords | =Λ= | 21:23, 29 August 2025 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 2 September 2025: Error if no text provided

If no text is provided, the template shouldn't output "Example text"; that should only be used for the example on the template page. Instead it should error:

−

{{{1|Example text}}}

+

{{{1|<includeonly>{{error|Error: No text given for quotation (or equals sign used in the actual argument to an unnamed parameter)}}{{main other|[[Category:Pages incorrectly using the talk quote inline template]]}}</includeonly><noinclude>Example text</noinclude>}}}

This also adds a tracking category.

I put this on the sandbox. Test case: Template:Talk quote inline/testcases § Invalid usage

This is based on this edit to {{Quote inline}} by @User:Est. 2021.

— W.andrea (talk) 13:34, 2 September 2025 (UTC)

I recommend {{error-small}}, which is a bit less shouty. Also, we now have three different proposed changes in the sandbox. See the sections above about font sizes and quotation mark spacing. – Jonesey95 (talk) 14:53, 2 September 2025 (UTC)

I recommend {{error-small}}, which is a bit less shouty.

Why's that? Shouty seems fine to me since an article shouldn't be saved with an empty {{Talk quote inline}}. — W.andrea (talk) 15:43, 2 September 2025 (UTC)

See the sections above about font sizes ...

There isn't a section about font sizes above, so you must mean the one that Matma Rex linked: Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 222 § Template:Talk quote inline and font size, specifically their comment they linked. — W.andrea (talk) 15:50, 2 September 2025 (UTC)

 Done Sohom (talk) 02:47, 27 November 2025 (UTC)

Sohom Datta or W.andrea: Please create and document the associated error category, and link to it from the template's documentation. – Jonesey95 (talk) 17:27, 27 November 2025 (UTC)

 Done Created Category:Pages incorrectly using the talk quote inline template and added to documentation. — W.andrea (talk) 18:45, 27 November 2025 (UTC) edited 18:53

Why straight quotation marks instead of curved ones?

Hello,
is there a reason why this template (Template:Talk quote inline) uses straight quotation marks "…" instead of the, (according to Quotation mark) typographically correct, curved ones “…” when setting the parameter |quotes=yes?
Molekularbiologe (talk) 07:54, 4 February 2026 (UTC)

Probably for consistency with MOS:STRAIGHT. Per the Wikipedia:Manual of Style § cite note-curlyq-8:

curly quotation marks and apostrophes are deprecated on the English Wikipedia because straight quotation marks and apostrophes are easier to type reliably on most platforms.

Mitch Ames (talk) 11:41, 4 February 2026 (UTC)

broken

it doesn't seem to work anymore for me Shoshin000 (talk) 14:41, 6 June 2026 (UTC)

it doesn't seem to work anymore for me. What is not working? Please link to an example page. – Jonesey95 (talk) 14:56, 6 June 2026 (UTC)

@Jonesey95 & @Shoshin000: It renders differently in different name spaces? On user talk pages, I get added quotes and no green color. See User talk:Rjjiii (ii) § Demo. Was this always the case? Rjjⁱⁱⁱ (talk) 14:38, 8 June 2026 (UTC)

It is now green again? Whatever caused this must have been something outside of the template, related the <q> tags. Rjjⁱⁱⁱ (talk) 15:25, 8 June 2026 (UTC)

Please see Talk:Luminiferous_aether#Content_contradicts_secondary_source_cited. On my side it renders with double quotes, not green or italic. Johnjbarton (talk) 20:17, 8 June 2026 (UTC)

Ok I see, it has something to do with the recent problems in rendering Talk pages. If the top of the page is messed in the rendering, the green will not appear. Johnjbarton (talk) 20:19, 8 June 2026 (UTC)