Dictionary

dialogue tag en · NOUN

Meanings

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see dialogue, tag.
2. A sentence part that attributes a piece of written dialogue to its speaker. (e.g. In "Get out of here," he said, "he said" is a dialogue tag.)
   • Not every paragraph of dialogue needs to have a dialogue tag attached to it.
   • An alternative style forsakes italics altogether and assigns a dialogue tag: This is going nowhere, he thought. 2011, Deborah Halverson, Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons:
   • A line of dialogue followed by a dialogue tag looks like this: “Nothing suits me better than a fried egg on toast early in the morning,” Billy said. 2015, Kris James with Laura E. Koons and Stefanie Spangler Buswell, Beyond the Style Manual: Bundle #1, Red Adept Publishing:
   • A dialogue tag has to indicate sound 2004, Leslie Wainger, Writing a Romance Novel For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons:
   • Sometimes inexperienced writers will discover the useful tool of tacking on detail to a dialog tag with a present participal or adverbial phrase: "It's too late," she said, closing the door. 2000, Tom Romano, Blending Genre, Altering Style: Writing Multigenre Papers, →ISBN, page 63:

Forms

Relateds

Tom Swifty · said-bookism

Synonyms

attribution · tag line · speech tag · quotative · tag · annunciatory clause · quotation marker

Translations (4)

nl citaatuitluider (speech tag, attribution) · nl citaatinbedder (speech tag, attribution) · de Begleitsatz (speech tag, attribution) · fr incise (speech tag, attribution)