In American English, where should the period go with quotation marks?

In American English, where should the period go with quotation marks?

• A. He said, "Meet me at five".
• B. He said, "Meet me at five."
• C. He said, "Meet me at five",
• D. He said, "Meet me at five".

Answer: (B)

In American English, periods and commas go inside the closing quotation marks. Since the quoted part is a complete sentence, the period belongs inside the quotes after “five.” So the line should end with … "Meet me at five." This keeps punctuation with the quoted material. Placing the period outside the quotes ($...five".) isn’t American usage, and using a comma before the closing quote isn’t needed here because the quoted sentence ends with a period. If the quoted material were itself a question, the punctuation would reflect that inside the quotation marks.