Opening and closing quotation marks — also popularly known as goose feet — are used, for example, to quote passages of text or to mark a literal speech.
They are often used incorrectly in common writing. Under no circumstances may they be replaced by the customs mark and in the German sentence also
not by the English quotation marks.
Use of quotation marks in German:
The term to be distinguished
Rule of thumb: The shape of the opening quotation marks is of the number 99 and the closing quotation marks of the number 66. These forms are best recognized with a serif font.
There are different types of quotation marks in different countries, such as the “guillemets” in France. They have tips facing outwards and are set with a space in French, without spaces in Switzerland and are also used in other Romance languages
InDesign tip:
To always use the correct quotation marks in the form of goose feet, check “Use typographic quotation marks” under Preferences → Input → Input Options.
Convert German quotation marks to guillemets via GREP:
Search/Replace → GREP tab
Search for: “(.*?) ”
Change to:” $1"
More typography tips and basics can be found in the book”The ABC of typography”.
