Notice
This page show a previous version of the articleHow to Write Dialogues
Why Write Dialogues
In order to provide context, sometimes single sentences are not enough.
Formatting Standards - Examples
English - Put each sentence in (double) quotes.
"I caught a bad cold." "That's too bad."
Japanese - Put each sentence in quotes 「 」without 。
「悪い風邪を引きました」「それはいけませんね」
Others - (In Progress - Just Notes)
NOTE: Perhaps most languages that use the quote character ("), are using the same standard in the Tatoeba Corpus as English does. I've checked the following languages.
Esperanto
(No native speakers, but ...)
520 examples use this format. "SENTENCE_1" "SENTENCE_2"
184 examples use this format. "SENTENCE_1" - "SENTENCE_2"
French
75 examples by native speakers use "SENTENCE_1" "SENTENCE_2" (Same as English)
5 examples by native speakers use "SENTENCE_1" - "SENTENCE_2"
German
180 examples by native speakers use "SENTENCE_1" "SENTENCE_2"
82 examples by native speakers use "SENTENCE_1" - "SENTENCE_2"
Hebrew
193 examples by native speakers use "SENTENCE_1" "SENTENCE_2"
? examples by native speakers use "SENTENCE_1" - "SENTENCE_2" (I can't easily check RTL languages for this.)
Portuguese
606 examples by native speakers use "SENTENCE_1" "SENTENCE_2" (Same as English)
0 examples by native speakers use "SENTENCE_1" - "SENTENCE_2"
Spanish
383 examples by native speakers use "SENTENCE_1" "SENTENCE_2" (Same as English)
6 examples by native speakers use "SENTENCE_1" - "SENTENCE_2"