How to Write Dialogues
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Why Write Dialogues
In order to provide context, sometimes single sentences are not enough.
Dialogues can also be used to show how non-sentences can be used as responses.
- [#1431300] "Is he lying?" "Obviously."
- [#5401699] "Can I join you?" "Sure."
- [#6229650] "Who was there?" "Only Tom."
- [#6446394] "How do you feel?" "Better."
- [#4628683] "Are you tired?" "Not really."
Formatting Standards
English. Put each speaker's statements with a pair of (double) quotes. We use "straight" quotes and not "curly" quotes on tatoeba.org. No dashes are used to show alternation between speakers.
- "I caught a bad cold. Now I feel terrible." "That's too bad."
German. Use the following format:
- „Ich bin ganz stark erkältet.“ – „Das ist aber ärgerlich!“
The dash must be a dash (Alt + 0150), not a hyphen. It should ideally be preceded by a non-breaking space (Alt + 255). Alt codes for the opening and closing typographical quotation marks used in German are Alt + 0132 and Alt + 0147.
Esperanto. You should use:
- „Mi ege malvarmumas.” – „Tio ja estas bedaŭrinda.”
French. You should use:
- « Sentence 1. » « Sentence 2. »
On Windows, one can insert « with Alt + 174 and » with Alt + 175. A space should be inserted after and before the guillemets, ideally a non-breaking space (Alt + 255). There is no need to add a hyphen or a dash at the beginning of the sentences.
Japanese - Put each sentence in quotes 「 」without 。 There is no additional space between these quotes 」「.
- 「悪い風邪を引きました」「それはいけませんね」
Portuguese. You should use "SENTENCE 1" "SENTENCE 2" (Same as English)
Spanish. You should use "SENTENCE 1" "SENTENCE 2" (Same as English)
Swedish. Use the following format:
- ”Jag har dragit på mig en rejäl förkylning.” ”Men vad synd!” *
Other Languages.
Most languages that use the quote character ("), are using the same standard in the Tatoeba Corpus as English does.
"SENTENCE 1" "SENTENCE 2"
Reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-English_usage_of_quotation_marks
This might be a good guide. However, the Tatoeba Corpus has adopted "straight" quotes as the standard rather than "curly" quotes.