Smart quotes converter
Paste text with plain " and ' marks and get properly curled quotes with apostrophes. The tool decides whether each mark opens or closes by looking at what comes before it. You can also go the other way and flatten any curly quotes.
Runs in your browser: nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
How to use it
- Paste your text.
- Choose English, German or French style, or Straight to undo curly quotes.
- Copy the result.
How it works
Quotes are first flattened, then each “ or ’ is classified as opening, closing or apostrophe and replaced with the character for the chosen style. The count shows how many were converted.
Worked example
The line He said, “It’s fine.” becomes He said, “It’s fine.” in English style and He said, «It’s fine.» in French style.
Tips
Use straight quotes for code, JSON and command lines; curly quotes belong in prose. Word processors can do this as you type, but pasted text often needs conversion.
Frequently asked questions
How does it tell opening quotes from closing ones?
A quote that starts the text, or follows a space, an opening bracket or a dash, is an opening quote. Any other quote is closing. A single quote between two letters, as in "it's", and one in front of an abbreviated word like '90s or 'til is an apostrophe.
What will it get wrong?
Plurals with a trailing apostrophe such as dogs' become closing single quotes, which look the same in English but differ in German. Quotes inside code or markup should not be converted, and a quote with no clear partner can be read the wrong way. Always check the result.
How does it treat text that already has typographic quotes?
Existing curly, German and French quotes are flattened to straight first and then re-curled in the chosen style. This makes it easy to switch a document from one style to another.
Why a no-break space option for French?
French typography puts a space inside guillemets, « comme ceci ». A no-break space keeps the mark with its text at the end of a line. It is off by default.