Differences between and

Question

There are several articles about this topic but I'm not able to understand the relevant difference between <q> and <blockquote>. The spec seems to have changed for blockquote link. It seems that long quotations are reserved for blockquote and inline quotation for <q>.

What do they mean with inline quotations?

Does one need to have the name of an author?

For example: what if the quote is of a company and its one long sentence. I would use <q> but I would not know exactly how to defend that point with arguments.

Possible duplicate of [Correct use of Blockquote, q and cite?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2205159/correct-use-of-blockquote-q-and-cite) — yAnTar, Jul 10 '17 at 09:54

score 14 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 19 '14 at 15:38

Just see their definitions:

q element:

[…] some phrasing content quoted from another source
blockquote element:

[…] a section that is quoted from another source

The last part is the same ("quoted from another source"), so they only differ in "phrasing content" vs. "section".

q can only contain phrasing content (and it can only be used where such phrasing content is expected). blockquote can only contain flow content (and it can only be used where such flow content is expected). In that sense, they are similar to span (~ q) and div (~ blockquote).

Some other differences:

Note that blockquote is a sectioning root, which means that any headings or sectioning elements it may contain will not be part of the document’s outline. q can’t contain headings or sectioning elements in the first place.

Note that you MUST NOT use any quotation marks when using q (not before, not inside, not after), because user agents should add them automatically. There is no such restriction for blockquote (however, it’s probably unlikely that you’d need some for block quotes).

score 9 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 19 '14 at 10:43

9

<blockquote> is a block level element like div. Which means that it will start at a new line if you put it in a document flow. For example, if my markups are:

 Henry Ford said <blockquote>Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them.</blockquote> in the 20th century

They will be shown on browsers like this blockquote Example

<q> is an inline element like span. So if my markups are

 Henry Ford said <q>Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them.</q> in the 20th century

The result will be

q example

answered Feb 19 '14 at 10:43

Toan Nguyen

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Thanks for the answer, but the question is more redirected the difference between them semantically. When should I use one or the other... Is then the difference only depending on its length? – Daniel Ramirez-Escudero Feb 19 '14 at 11:59
@DanielRamirez-Escudero No. If you want your quote continues where the text ends, then use . Otherwise, use
Have a look at the images.
– Toan Nguyen Feb 19 '14 at 12:35
This means that there is no semantical difference, only visual? – Daniel Ramirez-Escudero Feb 19 '14 at 13:05
@DanielRamirez-Escudero Yes – Toan Nguyen Feb 19 '14 at 13:10

Harsha Biyani · Answer 3 · 2015-09-23T08:54:05.450

4

<blockquote> is block level element, normally it starts and end with new line when displayed in the browser. <q> is inline element,normally it displays without line break.

Block elements stand on their own; inline elements goes with the flow.

edited Sep 23 '15 at 08:54

answered Feb 17 '15 at 16:59

Harsha Biyani

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Differences between and

3 Answers3

Linked