comma and colon

[stephenlearner]

Hi,

The captain looked into his palm and said: "...."

In the sentence above, is it more common to use a comma, instead of a colon after the word "said" ?
In Chinese, we often use a colon after the word "say" or "said" in direct quotation. I wonder if that is still true in English.

Thank you very much.

 

[reno33]

I believe the standard usage requires a colon just before the quote as in your first sentence above. However, I have seen a comma used instead of a colon as you describe so in contemporary English, the rule might be changing so that now both possibilities are acceptable.

 

[tunaafi]

We often use no punctuation at all before direct speech in BrE these days. If we do use a punctuation mark, it is a comma.

 

[Rover_KE]

Catch up with the 21st century: use no punctuation before direct speech.