Do Quotes Go Before or After a Period?
In American English the period goes inside the closing quotation mark. In British English it goes outside when the period is not part of the original quote.
Quick Answer
In American English the closing quotation mark goes after the period, so the period is inside the quotes: She said, "We are done." In British English the period goes outside the closing quote when it is not part of the quoted material: She said, "We are done".
It is not a typo on either side. It is a real style split. If you are writing for a US publication use the American rule; for UK or most Commonwealth publications use the British rule.
The American Rule, Always
In American English (Chicago, AP, MLA, APA) the period and the comma always go inside the closing quotation mark, no matter what is being quoted. This is true even when the quote is a single word or a short phrase. She called the report "incomplete." The period sits inside the closing mark even though it was not part of the word "incomplete" when she said it.
This rule is sometimes called the "typesetter's rule" because it came from 19th century printing practice: the small comma and period sat more cleanly under the protective curl of the closing quotation mark than outside it.
The British Rule, in Brief
British English follows logical punctuation. The period goes inside only if it was part of the original quoted sentence. Otherwise it goes outside. She said, "We are done." keeps the period inside because the speaker ended the sentence there. She called the report "incomplete". puts the period outside because "incomplete" is just a word, not a full quoted sentence.
Question Marks and Exclamation Points Are Different
Both American and British English agree on this one: question marks and exclamation points go inside the closing quote only if they belong to the quoted material; otherwise they go outside.
Belongs to the quote: She asked, "Are we done?"
Belongs to your sentence: Did she really say "we are done"?
Commas Behave Like Periods
The same US versus UK split applies to commas. American style places the comma inside the closing quotation mark in all cases. British style places it inside only when it was part of the quoted material. So an American writer types "We are done," she said, while a British writer would type "We are done", she said, if "done" did not end the original sentence.
Colons and Semicolons Always Outside
Both styles agree colons and semicolons go outside the closing quotation mark. She called the report "incomplete"; the committee disagreed.
A Practical Workflow
- Pick the audience first. If you do not know whether your reader is in the US or UK, default to the style guide your publication uses.
- Be consistent. Do not switch styles within a single document. Pick one and apply it everywhere.
- When in doubt, read the sentence aloud. If the period belongs to the quoted thought, it goes inside in either system.
Bottom Line
American English puts the period inside the closing quotation mark every time. British English puts it inside only if the original quoted sentence ended there. Both systems agree about question marks and exclamation points: those go inside only when they belong to the quote.
More context worth knowing
To round out the answer, here is some additional background on placing the period inside or outside the closing quotation mark. Style guides treat this rule as more than a cosmetic choice. It signals to readers that the writer respects the original source, follows a consistent convention, and understands the difference between American and British practice. When you write about quotes before after period in any professional setting, that consistency is what separates a polished page from a draft that distracts the reader.
Editors at major publishers, including university presses, trade magazines, and legal journals, run every manuscript through a style check that flags exactly this kind of issue. If the guidance feels picky, remember that search engines and screen readers also rely on consistent punctuation to parse a sentence correctly. A misplaced quotation mark can change how an excerpt is rendered in a featured snippet, an email preview, or an accessibility tool.
Practical tip: keep a one-page cheat sheet next to your keyboard with the three rules you reach for most often. For quotes before after period, that usually means the rule about capitalization, the rule about punctuation placement, and the rule about block quotations. Anything more than three rules tends to be forgotten under deadline pressure, so curate ruthlessly.
If you write for a global audience, double check whether your house style follows American English or British English. The two traditions disagree on punctuation placement around quotation marks, on the choice between single and double marks for the outer quotation, and on whether long quotations should be indented or set off with a colon. Picking one tradition and sticking to it across a whole site is more important than picking the "correct" one, because mixed styles confuse readers and weaken trust.
Finally, if you are publishing online, remember that screen readers announce quotation marks differently depending on the user's settings. Curly smart quotes, straight typewriter quotes, and the special primes used for measurements are not interchangeable. Use the correct character for the job so that assistive tech reads your sentence the way you intended, and so that copy-paste into another document preserves your meaning.