Dialogue Questions

[Steve C]

A technical ask. Question marks are like full stops (aren't they?) so when a dialogue question is asked does the tag start with a capital letter.
for example.
'You go first,' she said. she has a small s
'Can you go first?' She asked. Capital S or small s

Sorry but my grammar is not great.

 

[RK Wallis]

Short answer, no, and a small 's' follows.

This is a great site to bookmark: Punctuation in Dialogue

And the relevant section of that post:

Questions in dialogue, with dialogue tag
Question mark is inside quotation marks. There is no comma. The tag doesn’t begin with a cap since it’s part of the same sentence, even though there’s a question mark in the middle of the sentence.

Use this same construction for the exclamation point.

“He loved you?” she asked, the loathing clear in her voice and posture.
“He loved you!” she said, pointing a finger at Sally.

 

[Steve C]

Thanks Rachel

 

[Rich.]

Rach has answered it, Steve, so this post is just an extra.

Speech marks simply indicate quoted speech within a sentence, a sentence that can be much larger than the quoted speech. That means you can also do things like this...

"Fish and chips," Dave said, "but leave off the vinegar." [That's all one sentence.]​

​

"Fish and chips" – Dave pointed at the chippy and narrowed his eyes – "but leave off the vinegar." [Also a single sentence.]​

 

[Steve C]

Thanks, Rich. Think I've got it now but can I still have the vinegar please?

 

[Rich.]

"You want vinegar?" said the chippy. "It's over there by the salt" – he waved a battered hand – "but don't overdo it, will you? It don't grow on bleedin' trees now, does it!"​

I once frequented a chip shop where this obnoxious individual actually worked. He seemed to be permanently, deeply and personally offended that his chip shop was right in the middle of student-land.