Straight quotes and curly quotes can perform the same basic job in written language, but they are not the same Unicode characters.
Straight characters such as “ and ‘ come from the ASCII tradition and are available directly on standard keyboards. Typeset text often uses separate opening and closing quotation marks such as “ ” and ‘ ’.
The difference is more than visual. It becomes important when text moves between word processors, websites, source code, databases, and other systems where the exact character matters.
Straight and Curly Quotes at a Glance
| Symbol | Unicode name | Code point | Typical role |
|---|---|---|---|
| “ | QUOTATION MARK | U+0022 | Straight double quotation mark |
| ‘ | APOSTROPHE | U+0027 | Straight apostrophe or single quotation mark in plain text |
| “ | LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK | U+201C | Opening double quotation mark in common English typography |
| ” | RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK | U+201D | Closing double quotation mark in common English typography |
| ‘ | LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK | U+2018 | Opening single quotation mark in common English typography |
| ’ | RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK | U+2019 | Closing single quotation mark and typographic punctuation apostrophe |
Quotation marks are part of a much wider system of punctuation symbols. Their opening and closing conventions vary by language, writing system, and editorial style.
What Are Straight Quotes?
The straight double quotation mark is:
“ — U+0022 QUOTATION MARK
The straight single form commonly typed from a keyboard is:
‘ — U+0027 APOSTROPHE
ASCII does not provide separate opening and closing curly quotation marks. As a result, the same straight character is commonly used at both ends of a quotation.
For example:
“This is a quote.”
‘This is a quote.’
In each case, the opening and closing marks use the same code point.
Are Straight Quotes Wrong?
No.
Straight quotes are sometimes informally called “dumb quotes,” especially when contrasted with automatically selected “smart quotes.” That terminology can make them sound inferior, but they are not inherently incorrect characters.
Straight quotation marks are appropriate and often required in many technical environments, including programming languages and machine-readable formats.
In prose, a publisher or style guide may prefer typographic quotation marks instead.
What Are Curly Quotes?
Curly quotation marks use distinct characters for different visual forms.
In common English typography, double quotation marks are usually:
“ — U+201C LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK
” — U+201D RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK
Single quotation marks are usually:
‘ — U+2018 LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK
’ — U+2019 RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK
For example:
“This is a quotation.”
A quotation inside another quotation might appear as:
“She called it ‘a surprising result.’”
The exact nesting convention depends on the language and editorial style.
Straight Quotes Do Not Encode Opening and Closing Direction
U+0022 “ can be used at either side of a double quotation.
Likewise, U+0027 ‘ is frequently used at either side of a single quotation in plain text.
The character itself does not encode separate opening and closing forms.
With typographic quotation marks, those forms are represented by separate Unicode code points.
Why Do Word Processors Convert Straight Quotes to Curly Quotes?
Many writing applications offer automatic typographic substitution, commonly called smart quotes.
When you type:
“hello”
the application may convert it to:
“hello”
Likewise:
‘word’
may become:
‘word’
This is a character substitution, not simply a change in font. The program replaces the original straight character with different Unicode characters based on the surrounding text.
Why Smart Quotes Sometimes Get It Wrong
Automatic conversion has to infer the role of each mark from context. Unusual text can confuse that process.
An abbreviated decade is a common example:
’90s
The first mark functions as an apostrophe indicating omitted digits. It is not an opening single quotation mark merely because it appears at the beginning of the expression.
Measurements, names, pasted fragments, and technical text can create similar problems.
Curly Quotes Are Different Characters, Not Just Different Shapes
Compare the double quotation characters:
“ — U+0022
“ — U+201C
” — U+201D
These are three separate Unicode characters.
The same applies to the common single forms:
‘ — U+0027
‘ — U+2018
’ — U+2019
Changing the font of one character does not turn it into another. The underlying text must actually contain a different code point.
Quotation Marks Are Language-Dependent
The familiar English pair “ ” is not a universal quotation convention.
Other languages and typographic traditions may use forms such as:
- « » angle quotation marks;
- „ low quotation marks;
- different combinations of curly quotation marks;
- corner brackets and other quotation characters.
Unicode therefore encodes quotation marks primarily by character identity and shape rather than assigning one universal grammatical role to every mark.
The same quotation character can serve a different opening or closing role in another language or convention.
Why Curly Quotes Can Look Different Between Fonts
Unicode identifies the character but does not require one exact drawing of its glyph.
U+201C and U+201D may appear strongly curved in one typeface and more wedge-shaped in another.
Even the visual relationship between the opening and closing forms can differ between font designs.
For that reason, identifying a quotation mark solely by which direction its curve seems to face is not always reliable.
Straight Quotes in Programming
In many programming languages, straight quotation marks are part of the syntax.
For example:
“hello”
or:
‘a’
may delimit strings or character values, depending on the language.
Replacing the ASCII characters with curly quotes:
“hello”
or:
‘a’
changes the actual characters and will often make the code invalid.
This is why automatic smart-quote conversion is generally inappropriate in source-code editors.
Straight Quotes in Machine-Readable Data
The same issue occurs outside programming languages.
Formats such as JSON, configuration files, markup, shell commands, and other structured text may require exact ASCII punctuation.
A rich-text editor that silently turns “ into “ or ” can therefore produce text that still looks readable to a person but is no longer valid for the software consuming it.
What About Apostrophes?
The relationship between apostrophes and single quotation marks is especially important.
U+0027 ‘ is the ordinary straight keyboard apostrophe.
In typeset punctuation, Unicode prefers U+2019 ’ when the mark functions as a punctuation apostrophe.
That means U+2019 can serve both as:
- a closing single quotation mark;
- a typographic punctuation apostrophe.
Compare:
‘hello’
don’t
The mark closing hello and the apostrophe in don’t can be the same Unicode character.
Quotation Mark ” vs Double Prime ″
The straight double quotation mark is often used as a keyboard substitute for the double prime symbol.
Compare:
“ — U+0022 QUOTATION MARK
″ — U+2033 DOUBLE PRIME
The double prime is used in contexts such as arcseconds, inches, and mathematical notation.
For example:
6′ 2″
may represent six feet two inches.
The plain-text form:
6′ 2″
is easy to type and widely understood, but it uses apostrophe and quotation-mark characters rather than the dedicated prime symbols.
Straight Apostrophe ‘ vs Prime ′
The same distinction applies to the single form:
‘ — U+0027 APOSTROPHE
′ — U+2032 PRIME
The prime is used in mathematics, measurement, and other technical notation. It is a separate symbol, not merely a more slanted version of an apostrophe.
Why Copying Text Can Change Your Quotes
Quotation marks may be transformed when text passes through a word processor, content management system, messaging app, email client, or rich-text editor.
A straight quote may be converted to a curly one. Another system may preserve it exactly. Pasted text can therefore contain different characters even when the visible sentence looks nearly unchanged.
This can affect:
- search and replace;
- database matching;
- source code;
- structured data;
- text comparison;
- copy-and-paste workflows.
Which Type of Quote Should You Use?
For ordinary prose, follow the quotation convention of the language, publisher, or style guide you are writing for.
For English typesetting, distinct opening and closing quotation marks are common.
For programming and machine-readable text, use the exact characters required by the syntax. Those are often the straight ASCII quotation marks.
Neither form is universally “better.” The appropriate character depends on the context.
How to Identify a Quotation Mark
If the glyph is unclear, checking the Unicode code point is more reliable than guessing from the curve.
| Symbol | Code point | Name |
|---|---|---|
| “ | U+0022 | QUOTATION MARK |
| ‘ | U+0027 | APOSTROPHE |
| ‘ | U+2018 | LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK |
| ’ | U+2019 | RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK |
| “ | U+201C | LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK |
| ” | U+201D | RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK |
If you encounter an unfamiliar quotation-shaped character in copied text, paste it into What Is This Symbol to identify the actual character rather than relying only on its appearance.
The Main Difference
Straight quotation marks are general-purpose ASCII characters commonly used at either side of a quotation.
Curly quotation marks use distinct Unicode characters for different typographic forms.
The distinction is therefore not merely stylistic. It is part of the encoded text, which becomes especially important when text moves between typography and software.