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Smart Quotes Converter
Fix text pasted from Word, Google Docs or a website: convert “curly” quotes, ’ apostrophes, — dashes and … ellipses to plain ASCII for code, CSV and forms, or go the other way and give plain text proper typographic punctuation. Toggle each character type separately.
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Enter your values to see the result.
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How to use the Smart Quotes Converter
- Choose the direction: smart → straight, or straight → smart.
- Paste your text.
- Tick the character types you want converted.
- Review the changes table and the converted text.
- Click Copy results to copy the text.
Character reference
| Character | Name | Unicode | ASCII equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|
| “ | Left double quotation mark | U+201C | " |
| ” | Right double quotation mark | U+201D | " |
| ‘ | Left single quotation mark | U+2018 | ' |
| ’ | Right single quotation mark / apostrophe | U+2019 | ' |
| „ | Double low-9 quotation mark | U+201E | " |
| – | En dash | U+2013 | - |
| — | Em dash | U+2014 | -- (or ---) |
| … | Horizontal ellipsis | U+2026 | ... |
| ′ ″ | Prime, double prime | U+2032, U+2033 | ' " |
| « » | Guillemets | U+00AB, U+00BB | " |
| (invisible) | No-break space | U+00A0 | space |
Straight → smart rules
- Apostrophes: between letters (it’s, rock’n’roll), before decades (’90s) and at the start of common contractions (’tis, ’em, ’cause).
- Opening vs closing: after a space, line start, bracket or dash a quote opens; otherwise it closes.
- Dashes:
---→ —,--→ — (or –), and a hyphen between two numbers (10-20) → en dash. Dates like 2026-10-20 are left alone. - Measurements: 5'6" → 5′6″; 27" monitor → 27″ monitor.
Automatic rules cannot understand meaning, so check unusual cases such as quotes nested directly inside other quotes, or a leading apostrophe in slang.
Frequently asked questions
What are smart quotes?
Smart (curly or typographic) quotes are the shaped quotation marks “ ” and ‘ ’ used in printed text. Word processors insert them automatically. Straight quotes " and ' are the plain ASCII characters on the keyboard.
Why do smart quotes break my code or CSV?
Programming languages, JSON, CSV, shell commands and many forms only recognize the straight ASCII quote characters. A curly quote is a different Unicode character, so a string pasted from a document can cause syntax errors or garbled text.
How does it decide between opening and closing quotes?
A quote at the start of a line or after a space, opening bracket or dash becomes an opening quote; any other quote becomes a closing one. Apostrophes inside words (don’t), before decade numbers (’90s) and in words like ’tis are always ’ (the same character as a closing single quote).
What is the difference between an en dash and an em dash?
The en dash (–) is about the width of the letter n and is used for ranges such as 10–20 or Monday–Friday. The em dash (—) is wider and marks a break in a sentence — like this. In ASCII they are usually written as - and -- respectively.
What are primes?
Primes (′ and ″) are the correct symbols for feet and inches (5′6″) and for minutes and seconds of arc. They look similar to quotes but are separate characters, so the converter handles them separately.
Does the converter change anything else?
In smart → straight mode it can also replace guillemets « » with straight quotes, non-breaking and thin spaces with normal spaces, and delete zero-width spaces. Each of these can be switched off with the “Other” option.
Are all the tools on FreeToolCabin tested for quality and accuracy?
Yes! Every tool on our site undergoes automated Q/A testing in real browser environments to ensure high precision, correct output, and zero errors. If you happen to spot a bug or have a suggestion, please contact us at [email protected] and our team will review it right away.
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