About the Smart Quotes Converter
This smart quotes converter fixes quotation marks in one paste. In "to curly" mode it turns typewriter-style straight quotes (" and ') into proper typographic quotes — “double”, ‘single’ and the apostrophe ’ — working out from the surrounding characters which ones open and which ones close. In "to straight" mode it does the reverse, replacing every curly quote with a plain ASCII quote.
Writers, editors and designers use curly quotes for polished copy in print, slides and web pages. Developers, data analysts and anyone pasting text from Word or Google Docs into code, JSON, CSV files, spreadsheets formulas or command lines need straight quotes, because curly ones break parsers and shell commands.
The converter also understands contractions (don’t), possessives (students’), abbreviated years (’90s) and common elisions such as ’tis and rock ’n’ roll, where the mark is always an apostrophe. You can choose German („…“) or guillemet («…») styles, and optionally convert double hyphens to em dashes, three dots to an ellipsis, and feet-and-inches marks after digits to primes.
How to use the smart quotes converter
- 1Paste your text into the box.
- 2Choose straight → curly for publishing, or curly → straight for code, CSV or JSON.
- 3Pick the quote style for your language when converting to curly quotes.
- 4Decide whether to convert dashes, ellipses and feet/inch marks too.
- 5Copy the converted text and check any quotes the notes flag.
Formula and method
Curly mode reads the text one character at a time and decides each quote from its context. A double quote at the start of the text, or after a space, opening bracket, dash or another opening quote, becomes an opening quote; anywhere else it becomes a closing quote. A single quote between two letters (don’t, o’clock) is an apostrophe; after a letter or digit it is a closing quote or possessive (students’); before an abbreviated year or a known elision (’90s, ’tis, ’em, rock ’n’ roll) it is an apostrophe; otherwise in an opening position it is an opening single quote.
Straight mode simply replaces every curly or angled double quote (“ ” „ « » ″) with " and every curly single quote, apostrophe or prime (‘ ’ ‚ ‹ › ′) with '. With dash conversion on, two or three hyphens become an em dash and three dots an ellipsis, or the reverse in straight mode. Context rules handle normal prose well, but unusual cases such as a quote that opens straight after a letter may need a manual touch.
Worked examples
Straight quotes to curly quotes
The two double quotes become “ and ”. It’s, ’90s, Don’t and o’clock get apostrophes (4), while the single quote opening the second sentence, the possessive students’ and the final closing quote count as 3 single quotes. The double hyphen becomes an em dash and the three dots an ellipsis — 11 changes in all.
Cleaning curly quotes for code or CSV
Two curly double quotes and three curly single marks (one apostrophe and a pair of single quotes) become straight ASCII quotes. With dash conversion on, the em dash becomes "--" and the ellipsis "...", for 7 changes.
German-style quotation marks
In the German style the opening double quote sits low („) and closes with “, while the inner single quotes become ‚ and ‘.
Feet and inches as primes
With primes switched on, the straight quote marks that follow digits become the prime (′) and double prime (″) symbols used for feet and inches instead of curly quotes.
Frequently asked questions
What are smart quotes?+
Smart quotes, also called curly or typographic quotes, are the shaped marks “ ” ‘ ’ that open and close a quotation. Straight quotes (" and ') come from typewriters and are used in code. Word processors insert smart quotes automatically as you type.
How do I convert curly quotes to straight quotes?+
Choose "Curly → straight", paste the text and copy the result. Every “ ” „ « » becomes " and every ‘ ’ ‚ ‹ › becomes '. To stop Word creating curly quotes in future, untick "Straight quotes with smart quotes" under AutoCorrect Options > AutoFormat As You Type; existing quotes are not changed by that setting.
Why do curly quotes break my code or CSV?+
Programming languages, JSON, CSV and shells only treat the ASCII characters " (U+0022) and ' (U+0027) as quote delimiters. A curly quote is a different Unicode character, so pasted code from a document can cause syntax errors or garbled characters.
Is an apostrophe the same as a closing single quote?+
In English typography, yes: the apostrophe and right single quotation mark are the same character, ’ (U+2019). That is why contractions such as don’t and abbreviations such as ’90s use a mark that curls the same way as a closing quote.
Should feet and inches use curly quotes?+
Strictly, no. Measurements such as 6′2″ should use the prime (′) and double prime (″) symbols. Many writers use straight quotes as a substitute; turn on the primes option to convert marks that follow digits.