In Spanish, unlike in American English, commas and periods go outside the quotation marks. If the quoted material ends in a period, omit that period. In the example below, the period belongs to the sentence that contains the quotation, and the period ending the quoted statement has been omitted.
Cuando Valentín le pregunta a Molina con cuál de los personajes se identifica, Molina responde, “Con Irena, qué te creés… Yo siempre con la heroína”.
If a quotation has final punctuation other than a period—a question mark, an exclamation point, or an ellipsis—include that punctuation and also include a comma or period that belongs to your own sentence.
Molina entonces le hace la misma pregunta: “¿Y vos Valentín, con quién?”.
Note that a parenthetical citation will often intervene between the closing quotation mark and the final punctuation of your sentence; in this case, the punctuation is the same as it would be in English.
Valentín dice, “Reíte. Con el psicoanalista” (Puig 31).
Molina le pregunta a Valentín, “Pero qué te hace tanta gracia?” (42).
Work Cited
Puig, Manuel. El beso de la mujer araña. Seix Barral, 1976.
The same principles apply to titles enclosed in quotation marks, as in the following example:
En 1945, Rulfo publicó el primero de los cuentos que aparecen en El llano en llamas, “Nos han dado la tierra”. En 1951, publicó “¡Diles que no me maten!”.
The Spanish adaptation of the MLA Handbook, the Manual MLA, offers comprehensive guidance on the placement of punctuation in relation to quotation marks (2.40, 5.48). Learn all about this and other aspects of MLA style in Spanish in the Manual MLA. And we want to hear from you! Submit your question to Ask the MLA.
Work Cited
Manual MLA. Translated and adapted by Conxita Domènech and Andrés Lema-Hincapié, Modern Language Association of America, 2025.