Should I put commas and periods before the ending quotation mark?

Question

I know that it is advisable to put commas, periods, exclamation marks, and question marks before the ending quotation mark when dealing with direct speech, or quoting whole sentences. But what if I just want to quote a single word or a phrase? For example, my sentence is this:

Don't forget the definition of "righteous" -- "morally right and good".

Is it correct to put a period after the quotation mark in such case? If not, is it always obligatory to insert terminating punctuation within quotation marks?

Answer 1

In typical UK style, the full stop would go after the quote marks, unless the full stop is part of the quotation.

In typical US style, the period goes inside the quote marks, even if not part of the original quote. The same goes for commas. Some US publications (such as "Wikipedia") are now using "British" style (source).

Note that question marks always follow “logic”. If they are part of the quote, they go inside the quotation marks, and outside if not.

(Note I'm a British user, so I used British conventions in that third paragraph.)

Answer 2

Yes you can put comma or full stop before quotation marks. Example: Tunde said," Messi was honoured yesterday." In the sentence comma is used before quotation marks. Note: put full stop before closing the quotation mark.